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Abstract:
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By entering the East Asian economic model (EAEM) in the 1950s, the Thai economy
was committed to the export-oriented, import-substituting low labour-cost manufacturing
paradigm that Vietnam and Cambodia have more recently embraced. The EAEM provides for
some success in expanding employment in the manufacturing sector and promoting income
generation for its workers and, overall, in promoting national economic development. However,
this is a model that has effectiveness that is limited in time, since the very process of national
economic development tends to increase incomes and, thereby, undermine the competitiveness on
which the model overall is based. In a crisis such as that which began in 2008, therefore, it was
necessary for the Thai government to take stock of its labour market planning functions, to review
the transparency and adequacy of its inward investment regulations, to promote creative industries,
to begin an inclusive national debate as to the nature of future development and similar activities.
Unfortunately, the Thai government has by and large failed to take the opportunity to pursue these
activities and has, instead, focused largely for political reasons on policies which attempt to
prolong membership of the EAEM or which are, in economic terms, apparently irrational or at
least unhelpful. This paper investigates the nature and scope of the Thai government’s response to
the economic crisis and, from this, considers the implications for governments whose countries are
in the early stages of the EAEM but still aware of the need to continual upgrading of the inputs
(principally labour) that will make it successful. |