Compared to the old Asian NIEs not only has Thailand’s recent rapid
growth taken place in a radically different context, but it also appears to
have been promoted by a very different balance of factors. The Kingdom’s
industrial development has been associated with a much greater involvement
of foreign investors and transnational corporations than was the case in
Taiwan and South Korea, and a much lower degree of state intervention and
direction than was the case in Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Indeed,
the Kingdom’s rapid economic development has been associated with
deregulation, liberalisation and a reduction in the economic activities of the
state which have facilitated the activities of foreign investors and
transnational corporations. These developments have been presented as
providing a ‘new model of development’. Handley has summarised this
view:
Economists, development agencies and international development
specialists are already starting to forsake their hallowed Japanese,
South Korean and Taiwanese models of development for a new
one: the Thai model. To them, Thailand’s four years of double
digit growth represents the success of a decade of deregulation
and the honing of investment codes to produce one of the most
user-friendly investment environments among developing
countries.