Thailand unveils soft-power strategy to match K-pop’s global reach

August 30, 2022

BANGKOK – The government’s Creative Economy Agency (CEA), which unveiled the plan on Monday, said its focus would widen from the domestic market to adapting Thai cultural identity for export to the globe.

This would be achieved by boosting the creative economy – people, businesses and locations – under three strategies, CEA executive director Chakrit Pichyangkul told a Bangkok press conference.

He said the strategies are: to empower cultural assets and creative cities; to build creative business competitiveness; and to enter the global market.

Chakrit explained that CEA was established with a mission to promote 15 fields of the creative economy as the engine of a balanced and sustainable economy.

The creative economy, which accounted for 7.5 per cent of Thai GDP and an estimated 900,000 jobs in 2020, is growing at 1.2 per…