Thailand’s biggest economic challenge is that its economy has been growing at slower pace, about 3% per annum, than Malaysia and China, at about 5% annually, because it lacks the ability to attract foreign investors, according to Dr. Kobsak Pootrakool, executive vice president of the Bangkok Bank and a respected economist, in an exclusive interview with Thai PBS.
If the slow growth persists much longer, Thailand will lose the status of being the economic leader in the region, which would be a big problem, but not an economic crisis like the “tom yum kung” debacle in 1997, he said.
Foreign investment in Thailand today is much less than before the 1997 crisis, due to excessive red tape, which many investors find to be an obstacle to investment and, more importantly, Thailand has fewer free trade agreements than its neighbours, like Vietnam.
He said Thailand used to be the leader…
