Economic Industrialization In Thailand

3486 Words14 Pages
Economic Development in Thailand from 1945 to 1997: Perspective of Labour-Intensive Industrialization 1. Introduction Despite being one of the biggest exporters of some agricultural products such as like rubber and rice, present-days Thailand is the industrial-driven economy. According to the World Bank’s statistics (2015), during 2010-2014, Thailand’s manufacturing sector contributed around 36-40 percent to total GDP (Gross Domestic Products), while Thai agricultural sector possessed about 10 percent in the same period. In addition to sectoral proportion to GDP, UNCTAD (2015) also shows that, between 2010 and 2014, the five biggest Thailand’s exports in terms of value, were mainly manufacturing products, e.g., automatic data processing machines,…show more content…
Additionally, in this period, Thailand successfully climbed a development ladder from an underdeveloped country to a member of middle-income countries and newly industrialized economies. In order to shed a light on Thailand’s successful industrialization, the essay divides into seventh sections. The first one is a description of Thai economy in the Nineteenth century and the early Twentieth century. The second section is an explanation of the perspective of labour-intensive industrialization. The third section is an overview of economic development in Thailand since the end of the Second World War to the Asian economic crisis. From the fourth to sixth section, the essay will investigate causes of outstanding industrialization in Thailand. The fourth section is an analysis on the relationship between state policies and industrialization in Thailand. The fifth section is about Thai industries’ modern workforce and rural industries. The sixth section attempts to locate Thai industrialization in international economic contexts. The essay will make a conclusion in the seventh…show more content…
In addition to underdeveloped village economy, the extraction polity also obstructed the birth of labour market. The reason is that the working-age people obligated to the corvée system, so they cannot move freely and obligated to serve rulers’ project. The corvée system may also be a constraint on the birth and expansion of the modern workforce in the Thai economy, since it discouraged rural people’s incentives to work, as suggested by Wong and Sugihara (2015: 307). Even the villages had to comply with corvée system that extracted their labours and resources; the villages were able to maintain the status of self-sufficient. The villages not only produce foods, which are long-grain rice (central plains) and sticky rice (hinterland), but also textiles and other handicrafts like pots or wooden works (Sirilak: 37). These productions conducted by labours, who survived from obligation in the corvée system. The typically available labours consisted of women, children, elders, and unregistered

More about Economic Industrialization In Thailand

Open Document