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Thailand built its economic wealth on its abundant natural resources (including teak, fish, rice, and tin) but now gets an increasing share of its gross national product (GNP) from manufacturing and services. Thailand showed a sharp increase in gross national product (GNP) per capita in recent years, pulling ahead of the average developing countries.
In several cases, Thailand nearly destroyed the resource base that fueled its growth. Logging reduced Thailand forest cover from 55 percent of the country in 1961 to about 28 percent by 1988. Deforestation left large areas of bare soil, contributing to mud slides, floods, and loss of life. As a result of the disastrous floods, Thailand banned logging as of January 1989. The Thai fishing fleet, which brings in the world's third largest catch, has decimated fish populations in the Gulf of Thailand and can maintain its catch only by building larger vessels that go further offshore. The rapid expansion of brackish water prawn culture on the southeast coast has led to the widespread destruction of mangrove forests.
The natural beauty of Thailand's coastline helps make tourism Thailand's leading source of foreign exchange. Although tourism may provide an incentive to protect scenic areas, it also causes pollution in resort towns such as Pattaya.
Thailand is more ethnically homogeneous than the other Asian rapidly industrializing countries (RICs), Malaysia and Indonesia. All but 5 percent of the population is made up of Thai-speaking Buddhists. Since the 1930s, the country has mostly been ruled by a succession of military governments; in 1988, Thailand elected its first prime minister in 12 years, suggesting that democracy may be maturing.
Thailand has invested heavily in human development. Literacy now stands at 90 percent for women and 96 percent for men, comparable to that of South Korea. Deaths of children under five have dropped from 91 per 1,000 in the 1970 75 period to a projected 39 per 1,000 in 1990 95, far below the Asian average of 94. Assisted by a vigorous family planning program and rising living standards, Thailand has undergone a demographic transition to lower birth rates. The fertility rate dropped from 5.5 in 1970 to less than 3 in 1990, below the average for developing countries.
Thailand has branched into labor-intensive industries such as integrated circuit and electronics assembly, footwear manufacturing, toy making, and textiles. Such industries have attracted considerable investment from Japan and Taiwan. Agriculture, still an important economic sector, employs the largest number of people, 18 million, or perhaps 70 percent of the work force. Northern rural areas are considerably poorer and have fewer services than metropolitan Bangkok (with 8.5 million people). On the other hand, Bangkok is choked by traffic and pollution, has no mass transit, and is home to at least 1 million squatters and slum dwellers.
Energy use, and especially electricity use, is growing rapidly. Per capita energy consumption has increased from about 8 gigajoules in 1970 to 18 in 1990, a point slightly below the 1990 average for developing countries. Thailand has considerable reserves of natural gas, a clean-burning fuel that could be tapped for both domestic use and export in liquefied form.
Reprinted from World Resources 1992-93, p. 49. Primary sources include:
1. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Thailand, Burma Country Profile 1990-91 (EIU, London, 1990), p.8.
2. Theodore Panayotou and Chartchai Parasuk, Land and Forest: Projecting Demand and Managing Encroachment (Thailand Development Research Institute, Ambassador City, Jomtien, Chon Buri, Thailand, 1990), Appendix B. p.74.
3. The World Bank, Trends in Developing Economies 1991 (The World Bank, Washington, D.C., 1991), p.521.