The National Reform Council will spend a year mapping out a 20-year plan to shape Thailand's future - emphasising political, economic and education reform to bring about equality in those areas, its chairman Thienchay Kiranandana said yesterday.

"These issues have been derived from the past two days of [NRC] discussions," he said. "This is the kick-off of NRC work and from now on these are the national agendas that we will continuously work together on."

Thienchay said NRC members formed a consensus on the six goals of national reform.

They were the attainment of a democratic system "appropriate" for Thai society, transparent and fair elections, an effective anti-corruption mechanism, social and economic equality, effective law enforcement, and a public mechanism that creates a just and fair society.

These will be the national goals over the next 20 years, he said.

Thienchay said NRC members had gathered ideas to form the foundation of the national reform framework, which was scheduled to be completed within a year. He is confident that the reform plan can be finalised within that time frame.

The NRC chairman described the vision and ideas of each of the reform areas.

On the economy, he said reforms covering many areas needed to take place to achieve the goals, including the taxation system, finance policy and mechanisms for consumer protection.

He also said there needed to be greater opportunities for farmers and the disadvantaged by creating, for example, a national education standard, while the public needed to have greater access to natural resources.

On the political front, Thienchay named the decentralisation of power as a key reform area. He said the regulative system must be strengthened, and the Interior Ministry's regional administration power restructured.

The process in which people become national or local politicians is another key area of reform identified by the NRC. Thienchay said the country needed a system that filtered out people who would make "bad politicians".

"We want to have a citizen council - a local council - both at a sub-district and national level, and independent organisations from the private sector that have equal status to the current independent organisations," he said.

He stressed that the NRC aimed to educate people to be politically active and aware.

The 18 reform committees to be endorsed today will use a "bottom-up and top-down" strategy to get well-rounded information on reform from all sectors of society, NRC selection committee spokesman Thon Thamrongnawasawat said yesterday.

He explained that 15 of the committees would comprise 33 members, 27 of whom will be NRC members plus six outsiders. The other three NRC panels - related to consumer protection, information technology and media, and public health - would only have 25 or 26 members each.

All 18 committees yesterday selected chairmen and deputies, and other executives, as well as representatives to coordinate with the National Council for Peace and Order and the government.

The spokesman said the 18 reform committees would collaborate with provincial offices of the Election Commission and the 77 provincial NRC members to gather data.

The NRC committees will also gather key data through their networks, civic groups and academics, as well as through official panels that are already researching certain reform issues.

"The committees would then synthesise information they receive through a bottom-up and top-down system before coming to a conclusion," Thon said.