We get this question once in a while. There is word going around about Thailand 4.0 and here is a brief explanation of what this is.

The Thai government has been progressively improving and progressing the Thai economy. Like all economic plans, these are conceptual ideas and a general direction of where the government would like the economy to be headed.

Thailand 1.0: Agriculture
Thailand 2.0: Light Industry
Thailand 3.0: Heavy Industry

The Thai government is aware of the economic challenges that have resulted from past economic models which have driven Thailand forward to date. If Thailand were to continue with previous economic models focusing on agriculture, light and heavy industries, they will not be able to overcome challenges like “a middle-income trap”, “an inequality trap” and “an imbalanced trap”.

Thailand 4.0: Innovative and Value-based Industry. High Income Country.

Four objectives of Thailand 4.0:

1. Economic Prosperity:
   – To create a value-based economy which is driven by innovation, technology and creativity.
   – To increase research and development expenditure to 4% of GDP.
   – To increase GDP growth to 5-6% within 5 years.
   – To increase income per capita GDP from USD$5,470 (2014) to USD$15,000 by 2032.
2. Social Well-being:
   – To create an inclusive society.
   – To reduce social disparity from 0.465 (2013) to 0.36 by 2032.
   – To develop at least 20,000 households into “Smart Farmers” within 5 years.
3. Raising Human Values:
   – Raise Thailand’s Human Development Index (HDI) from 0.722 to 0.8 or within the top 50 countries within 10 years.
   – Ensure that at least 5 Thai universities are ranked among the world’s top 100 higher education institution within 20 years.
4. Environmental Protection:
   – To become a livable and low carbon society.
   – To develop at least 10 cities into the world’s most livable cities and reduce terrorism risk.

As mentioned before. These are general guidelines. It is important to note that it will require a lot of political clout from the government at that point in time to enforce such policies. It is, however, good to note that these are the general policies moving forward for Thailand.

Yours sincerely,

The Invest Bangkok Property editorial team