Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Mark Carroll, Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce
The muddy floodwaters in Thailand having receded, one of the truths to emerge will be just how important the Thai economy is in both regional and global terms.
Thailand is a manufacturing powerhouse. Countless small and large factories churn out a broad range of finished consumer goods for export, as well as component products vital to global supply chains. Read more…
Author: Patrick Jory, University of Queensland
The 2006 coup put Thailand’s monarchy in the political spotlight as never before.
It was planned and executed by figures close to the monarchy, and many commentators argue that its real aim was to secure the primacy of the monarchy in the face of Thaksin Shinawatra’s electoral popularity. Read more…
Author: Dilaka Lathapipat, TDRI
There is a widespread belief among Thais that immigrants reduce local workers’ job opportunities and depress wages.
This is evident from an opinion survey study conducted in late 2010 by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Triangle Project on public attitudes to migration and migrant workers. Read more…
Author: Kimly Ngoun, ANU
The conflict between Cambodia and Thailand has made headlines around the world over the past few years.
The latest dispute was precipitated by Thailand’s failed effort to block Cambodia from unilaterally nominating Preah Vihear Temple — an ancient Khmer temple located within a disputed border area — as a World Heritage site.
Author: Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Chulalongkorn University
While Thai politics has long been unruly, it has rarely been so unsettled and intractable as in 2011.
Thailand has entered 2012 bruised and battered, even compared to previous bouts of political instability. Read more…
Author: Anders Engvall, Stockholm School of Economics
On the evening of 25 October 2011 the southern Thai town of Yala was shaken by a string of 30 explosions that caused great terror and loss of life. The following day the neighbouring province of Narathiwat saw a similar wave of attacks.
This latest bombing campaign was a stark reminder from southern Thailand’s insurgency movement of the seventh anniversary of the Tak Bai massacre. Read more…
Author: Bandid Nijathaworn, Thai Bond Market Association
The development of Thailand’s financial sector has been a story of restructuring, adjustment and renewal, following the devastating effects of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.
The crisis was very costly to the Thai financial system, with an estimated gross fiscal loss equivalent to about 33 per cent of 2006 GDP. Read more…
Author: Pasuk Phongpaichit, Chulalongkorn University and Kyoto University
Thailand has become a wealthier but also more unequal society over the past few decades.
Until recently inequality was not a burning issue — but Thailand’s prominent political convulsions have changed this.
Author: Prajak Kongkirati, ANU
On the surface the general election of 3 July 2011 may look like any other Thai election, but both its timing and context set it apart as historically significant.
Incumbent Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called for elections on 11 March 2011, even though his government had until the year’s end to finish its term. Read more…
Author: Pisit Leeahtam, Chiang Mai University
After facing two violent street protests in the last two years, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s coalition government started 2011 in relative calm.
The then-opposition Pheu Thai Party was without a visible leader, and many saw the red shirts as still suffering from the May 2010 violence and thus unlikely to stage another street protest. Read more…
Authors: Desmond Ball and Nicholas Farrelly, ANU
In the lead-up to Thailand’s July 2011 election the tough-talking army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, weighed into the political debate, insisting that voters should defend the king and elect ‘good people’.
General Prayuth hoped, no doubt, that his efforts to sway popular sentiment would lead to a victory for the embattled Democrat Party. Read more…
Author: Bruce Chapman, ANU
A sustained effort to upgrade human capital is needed for countries in Southeast Asia to increase living standards to those of the advanced economies. Higher education and access to it are essential in boosting long-term productivity and supporting economic outcomes that are crucial to a country’s ability to integrate into the increasingly knowledge-based global economy.
Public investment is one element in improving higher education, but fully subsidising higher education has been shown to be inefficient and expensive. Read more…
Author: Chris Baker, Kyoto University
Last year, fire; this year, water.
The largest demonstrations in Thailand’s political history ended with over 90 deaths in April–May 2010, but 18 months later, with the country’s biggest floods in half a century, some believed that togetherness in suffering would revive a mythical ‘national unity’. Read more…
Author: Somchai Jitsuchon, TDRI
That Pheu Thai (PT) Party won Thailand’s general election was hardly a surprise, even to its principal political opponent, the Democrat Party.
What was surprising was the overwhelming majority it won. Read more…
Authors: Prema-chandra Athukorala, ANU; and Archanun Kohpaiboon, Thammasat University
The proliferation of FTAs over the past two decades has sparked a debate in Australian and international policy forums about their implications for the operation of the global trading system and ways of mitigating likely discriminatory effects on both partners and non-signatory countries.
An examination of the impact of the Australia–Thailand free trade agreement (TAFTA) of January 2005 on trade between the two countries provides valuable input into this debate. Read more…