Thailand
Thailand is an emerging economy dependent on exports and foreign investment. In the wake of the Asian financial crisis (1997-1998), Thailand realized it would have to increase its openness to trade and free market policies. Although it joined the World Trade Organization in 1995 before the crisis, Thailand was relatively closed and has since restructured its public sector and financial system.
Classified as the second largest economy in Southeast Asia (after Indonesia), Thailand is a perfect example of how quantity doesn’t always lead to quality, as it is surpassed in GDP per capita by Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia. The country’s large percentage of agricultural work, specifically being the largest exporter of rice in the world, initially put Thailand in a difficult position in that it didn’t want to lose it’s niche in the global rice market, but it was consequentially slower to develop in the richer, higher-end markets such as technology. Recently, however, Thailand has diversified its manufacturing markets to include computers, electronics, plastic products, and jewelry, which has led to economic growth.
As much as Thailand is trying to integrate into the global economy, there is only so much power it has over its own fate. It almost depends more on how the powerful countries react and whether or not they’ll allow international policies that benefit everyone equally. As Dollar and Kraay state in their article Spreading the Wealth, “Many of the policy questions come down to whether the rich world will make integrating with the world economy easy for those poor communities that want to do so. The world’s poor have a large stake in how the rich countries answer.”
Franconomic Data (2008 est.):
Population: 65.5 million
GDP Purchasing Power Parity: $570.1 billion
GDP Official Exchange Rate: $272.1 billion
GDP Growth Rate: 4.8%
GDP per Capita: $8,700
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