Study of rural electrification in South-East Asia

TLDR: A survey of rural electrification in South-east Asia can be found in this article, where the socioeconomic benefits accruing to these programmes and the role of rural development in rural development are reviewed and assessed.

Abstract: This thesis is a survey of rural electrification programmes in South-East Asia. In the course of the last two decades there has been considerable investment in rural development by Less Developed Countries throughout the world and particularly in the South-East Asian region. Significant progress of rural electrification has been made in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines during this period. Indonesia has not achieved the extensive rural electrification evidenced by those countries and by 1984 less than fifteen percent of its total population, and a considerably lower percentage of its rural population, had access to an electricity supply. The fact that the Philippines and Indonesia are archipelagos and that they are at different stages in their rural electrification programmes led to the selection of these two countries for specific consideration of their differing approaches to rural electrification. The institutional, financial and technical aspects, and the establishment, management and operation of rural electrification programmes in the South-East Asian region are considered. The socio-economic benefits accruing to these programmes and the role of rural electrification in rural development are reviewed and assessed. The information and analysis is presented with a view to providing information for rural electrification planners, and for countries such as Indonesia at a comparatively early stage of their rural electrification programmes.