Thailand continues to strengthen its economic ties within Asia as Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra traveled to South Korea to underline the long friendship between the two countries and the considerable opportunities that exist to expand their economic relationship.
Thailand’s resilient automotive industry sees 2012 as a turnaround year of explosive growth and vibrant innovation. Rebounding robustly from last year’s flood crisis, manufacturers are confirming their confidence in the country as a leading global production hub. New investments are springing up and the domestic sales market sizzles with invigorated demand, including heightened interest in eco-cars.
Last month, Naoyuki Shinohara, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, gave an address at Chulalongkorn University on the Global and Regional Economic Outlook and the Role of Integration in Asia. The global economy had suffered a major setback in late 2011, although Mr. Shinohara sees some positive signs as a result of modest improvement in financia indicators and policy measures that are being taken to deal with the financial crisis in Greece there is much more that needs to done.
Thailand is well on its way to becoming a knowledge-based economy, which implies increased productivity, manufacture of high value-added products, and unleashing the creativity of the Thai people. This is clearly noticeable in the agricultural sector, where the nation has moved away from being a mere supplier of raw materials to a manufacturer of processed foods which can compete on a global level. In the auto industry as well, Thailand is enhancing its production capacity of more technologically advanced components to service the needs of an industry that is well on the way to being ranked 10th in the world.
A 100% Thai-owned enterprise, the Thai Summit Group this year is celebrating its 35th anniversary, being established on 16 March 1977. Today, with US$2 billion in annual sales, the group has expanded to over 30 affiliated companies. Of these, 15 are subsidiaries wholly owned by Thai Summit, nine are joint ventures and 11 are overseas companies.
The Industry Ministry has released a summary report on the status of Thai industry in 2011 and the industrial forecast for 2012. This is a summary of the rather extensive report issued that is based on surveys done by the Office of Industrial Economics and by the Bank of Thailand, and includes information on employment, trade, international investment, entrepreneur and consumer opinions, and the economic forecasts of industries.
