Within the past week, there has been some exciting news in Bangkok, at the home of our Thai subsidiary, Danish Management Group Thailand.

First Asia ESCO Conference

Danish Management Group Thailand last week formally inked its first contract, with the Japan ESCO Association, or JAESCO. (ESCO stands for "energy services companies", firms that design, manage, and assist in locating financing for energy-efficiency projects in buildings and factories.) JAESCO has hired Danish Management Group Thailand to organize the First Asia ESCO Conference, which will be held in Bangkok during 20-21 October and will be attended by approximately 200 participants working in the ESCO industry and energy-efficiency finance globally. The conference will be co-sponsored by the Thailand Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency (DEDE).

The first steps of work in this project will be to develop the conference web site and to issue a Call for Presentations later this month to several hundred potential participants internationally. In March, Danish Management Group Thailand will work with DEDE to hold a meeting next month to inform Thai ESCOs and stakeholders about the conference and to encourage their participation and involvement.

The Project Director is Mr. Peter du Pont, and the main consultants are Mr. Monthon Kumpengsath, Mr. Jakkanit "Jeff" Kananurak, Ms. Chonticha "Fon" Cherdsuriya, and Mrs. Bongkot "Dhon" Sewatarmra.

While the contract value is not very large (EUR 41,000), it is a strategic project and will put Danish Management Group at the center of a very important energy-efficency event for the region.

Self-Monitoring System for Community Based Tourism

Danish Management Group does not normally work in tourism, but we do have an international reputation for being experts in monitoring.

Since December 2004, Danish Management Group Thailand has been working with a local EU project manager to develop project ideas for the Thai-EU cooperation project entitled Coastal Habitat And Resource Management (CHARM). CHARM began in 2002 and aims to promote coastal resource management through strengthening the capacity of local administration. A number of activities regarding coastal resources, such as mangrove plantations, organic shrimp farming, and community volunteers for coastal resource management have been implemented since the beginning of the project. With an advise from REST (Responsible and Ecologically Sustainable Tourism), a local Thai NGO with expertise in promoting community-based tourism (CBT) for development, CHARM in 2004 launched an experimental project at a community in Southern Thailand.

Mrs. Bongkot "Dhon" Sewatarma -- Director of Danish Management Group Thailand with more than fifteen years experience working with Thai NGOs on environmental issues, and also an advisor to REST -- has since November 2004 been designing a project to develop a learning network to link coastal communities under sponsorship of CHARM.

In January 2005, a framework agreement was signed between REST and CHARM to carry out this project that worth approximately 2.5 Million Baht (EUR 50,000). Mrs. Dhon is now developing a new component call Impact Analysis and Monitoring Framework for CBT for the communities in the network, with an approximate budget of EUR 120,000. The idea is to combine the community-based self-monitoring with a study of the socio-economic and ecological impacts.

This project will include a series of workshops to develop self-monitoring templates with the community which will cover the project progress, and observed changes in economy, social and environment, the calibration of the self-monitoring tools which will be participated by external experts on economics, social and ecology, training the community to use internet and tracking database and finally for all communities to share with each other about their experience and learning from adopting CBT. The project length is 2.5 years, beginning around April 2005 and lasting through October 2007.

The project director is Mrs. Bongkot "Dhon" Sewatarmra, and the main Danish Management Group Thailand consultants assisting will be Mr. Jakkanit "Jeff" Kananurak and Mr. Peter du Pont.