2004, 'The Thai economy: a picture from the past (original) (raw)

Thailand: Boom, Bust and Recovery

G. Rodan, K. Hewison, & R. Robison, editors, The Political Economy of South-East Asia. Markets, Power and Contestation, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, pp. 74-109., 2006

Brief Economic History of Thailand

Wetland agriculture has always played a significant role in Thailand’s economy. Known previously as Siam, Thailand opened to foreign contact in the pre-industrial era. Previously, Thailand was a feudal society mostly run by noble families. The Thai economy changed from one of subsidence to cash during the nineteenth century by the opening of the commercial rice market, during this time the power of the noble families was weakened as more rights were given to farmers by the King. (Jeffrey Hayes, 2008). Thailand slowly became one of the major trade hubs in Asia, mostly trading with Chinese merchants, many of whom migrated and attained high positions within the country. Later, deals with Europe increased, with treaties being created to guarantee the rights and privileges of European traders. Later amendments were made extending these opportunities to Americans also. Thailand’s economy eventually grew until it began to work on a global scale. During the time of the Vietnam war and the late 1980’s and early 1990’s Thailand began to grow at a level where the economy started to rival that of other developed nations such as Taiwan and South Korea. Growing steadily at eight percent per year between 1985 and 1995 and peaking at 13 percent in 1988. This growth continued until the great depression and then later the Asian financial crisis which originated in Thailand in 1997 because of the financial collapse of the Thai Baht. The crisis was the worst economic crisis ever to hit Thailand and was dubbed the Tom Yum Goong crisis (Spicy Shrimp Soup) due to the immense heat and stress that people felt at that time. There was action taken by many actors at the time, including the Thai monarchy. Bhumibol Adulyadej was the King at this time and had toured the country for years, especially in rural and impoverished regions such as Essan; considered to be the most impoverished region of the nation. King Bhumibol had significantly lectured on the benefits of following a sufficiency based economy. The focus being on an economy that would allow the Thai people to support themselves (UNDP report 2007). The sufficiency economy philosophy is made up of three main components these being: wisdom, moderation, and prudence. Sufficiency economy has much in common with Buddhist economics, a spiritual belief that gross national happiness is more important than gross domestic product. As Zsolnai Laszlo stated, Buddhist economics can be summed up as when “the marginal productivity of labor utilized in producing consumption goods is equal to the marginal effectiveness of the meditation involved in economizing on consumption without bringing about any change in satisfaction" (Zsolnai, Laszlo, 2011). The king among other members of the monarchy carried out a number of royal projects hoping to alleviate some of the effects of the Tom Yum Goong crisis.

Falling Behind, Forging Ahead and Falling Behind Again: Thailand from 1870 to 2014

Economies, 2016

The paper argues that Thailand's economic and social development from the late 19th century to the early 21st century presents a puzzle. For much of the period from 1870 to 1940, the country's economic growth was slow, and the economy remained agricultural, with little diversification into modern industry or services. It was the only Southeast Asian country to escape direct colonization, and yet it did not use its relative freedom from colonial control to embark on a programme of accelerated economic, social and political modernization. The contrast with Meiji Japan has been made by several Thai and foreign scholars, but Thailand's growth was also slow in comparison with several neighbouring countries under colonial control. Only in the late 1950s did economic growth start to accelerate and by 1996, per capita GDP was well ahead of other ASEAN countries except Malaysia and Singapore. The paper explores the reasons for the accelerated growth, looking particularly at the role of government. The paper also examines the reasons for the growth collapse of 1997/1998, and the slower economic growth since then.

Global Development Challenges and Thailand’s Economy Today

2007

The article analyses the current global economic trends and explores the new realities in the current set of economic parameters. While there are encouraging positive economic trends and further liberalization of international trade is in order, the overall trade system still imposes many barriers to the developing countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand. The global and regional developments’ impact on overall progress and macroeconomic reforms in considered to analyze the current status of economic growth and challenges facing the nation today and in the years to come. An attempt is made to explore the achievements in meeting global development targets and the progress in fighting common economic threats for the human development, as well as the role of Thailand in Southeast Asia and broader economic integration. Thus, based on the deliberate economic trends analysis and anatomy of the current developments, the article draws a number of implications for regional integration...

The Political Economy of Industrial Development in Thailand

Journal of ASEAN Studies, 2014

Since the 1990s, governments around the world have emphasized the core concepts of globalization. Many governments initiated a series of political policies regarding liberalization and privatization in response to the inevitable phenomenon. In Southeast Asia, Thailand participated in the development as well by reconstructing its financial system to allow greater foreign capital for investments. Unfortunately, the importance of prudential regulations was underestimated, and the neglect thereafter caused the Asian Financial Crisis which initially occurred in Thailand on the second of June, 1997. The Thai government received 17.2 billion US dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stabilize its domestic situation and implemented structural reform to minimize losses from the crisis. Meanwhile, different voices regarding the policies for globalization were expressed. These opinions mainly referred to regionalization/ regionalism and localization/ localism. This study discusses how the Thai state transformed under globalization from three industries: the Telecommunication industry, the Automobile industry, and the Cultural Creative industry. This article observes that Thailand turned to take regionalization and localization into consideration, which in turn demanded the state to increase domestic autonomy and capacity. The findings also suggest that cooperation with other governments in the region to accelerate economic recovery from the crisis was inevitable. However, political instability and close state-business relations continue to make the future of Thailand uncertain.