Thailand

With one in every three Thais making their living in the sector, agriculture is key to the country’s social makeup, even if its importance to the formal economy has diminished. The growth of industry has helped transform agriculture, and agro-manufacturing exports like processed sugars and cereals, and canned fish and fruit are multibillion dollar industries. Rice is the traditional staple, but a...

The education system will need serious improvement if it is to break out of the classic “middle-income trap”. Reforms on the table call for a move to learner-centred teaching and greater use of IT in the classroom, including a “One Tablet Per Child” programme. Neither will be a panacea; observers cite a chronic disregard of secondary education in favour of funding the primary and tertiary sectors...

Thailand, already a tourism powerhouse, is expected to see a 6.4% annual growth of tourism’s contribution to GDP through 2020, outpacing the world average. The country will benefit from the economic development of nearby China and India, where outbound tourism is exploding. Thailand’s hope for the medium-term is to boost per-visitor revenue, encouraging luxury tourism without damaging its...

Thailand lags behind its peers in several measures of connectivity and IT-readiness, although this may change in the near-term. A 3G spectrum auction is scheduled for the third quarter of 2012 after years of delay that saw neighbours adopt the standard widely and even implement 4G. Reforms to the state-owned enterprises that control the infrastructure – TOT and CAT – are being considered, which...

Delays and reconstruction work from 2011’s flooding have left Thailand’s contractors with a backlog of public and private projects in 2012. The construction sector is highly competitive, with major contractors focusing on efficiency and looking for public contracts rather than rely on riskier private sector work. Competition has also led Thai builders overseas, securing projects in Laos, Vietnam...

Years of a governmental stalemate on transport investment appear to be over, after a decision by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to approve borrowing of more than $51bn for infrastructure. High-speed rail will be one major focus: plans call for four lines of several thousand kilometres total, although the project must still be approved by Parliament and pass through environmental impact...