Over the last four decades, Thailand has made remarkable progress in social and economic development, moving from a low- income to an upper-income country in less than a generation.
The Southeast Asian kingdom offers much more than tropical beaches, opulent royal palaces, ancient ruins and a great culinary scene. Its central position in Asia made it easier to trade with economic superpowers such as China and India and grow along their side.
In recent years, the government has successfully stimulated foreign investors to come to Thailand. This mainly used to be done in those industries where development of skills and innovative technology was needed, but through the Board of Investment (BOI), the Thai government now provides multiple advantages (such as the exemption of foreign equity restrictions) and tax incentives to all kinds of promoted activities. Thailand is also one of the founding members of ASEAN and made itself an extremely interesting trade partner by concluding multiple Free Trade Agreements.
Today, Thailand is considered a newly industrialised country and is the 2nd largest economy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Over the last four decades, Thailand has made remarkable progress in social and economic development, moving from a low- income to an upper-income country in less than a generation. As such, Thailand has been a widely cited development success story, with sustained strong growth and impressive poverty reduction.
