. 1. Introduction in Thailand, industrial cluster development was formally initiated during the Ninth National Economic and system Development Plan It stated under the seventh strategy of the plan that the managerial of SMEs should be promoted through industrial and networks such as linkage with industrial enterprise production, training in management and technology, and increased investment in research and development to enhance their competitiveness, The Department of Industrial Promouon DIP), Ministry of Industry, is the major government agency responsible for the implementation of this plan, and has supported the development of more than 200 industrial clusters. At the present time, industrial clusters are still a major part of government development policy, especially those in the ten special economic zones due to start in 2015, and also included in the Twelfth National Economic and Social Development Plan (2016-2020). Despite continual government promotion, industrial clusters in Thailand are still far behind in development. The clusters face various problems: including collaboration among cluster members, inappropriate guidelines for development, and a lack of knowledgeable supportive
government officers and consultants.
More importantly, it is still doubtful how long each stage of industrial cluster development should take.for this reason, at the end of each fiscal year, the DIP has to conduct a performance evaluation of its industrial cluster support. This paper presents the results of such evaluation for the fiscal year 2012 consisting of two main objectives: (1) to investigate the existing status and development performance of the industrial cluster, and (2) to propose the life cycle of the industrial cluster and essential key performance indicators for each stage, in order to guide further policy for appropriate enhancement of industrial cluster development
The remainder of this paper will tackle the following topics. Section 2 describes the concept relating to industrial clusters and related methodologies. Section 3 presents a brief background of supported industrial clusters, performance evaluation results together with developmental contribution and efficiency. Section 4 elaborates on the assessment of the stages in industrial cluster life cycle development using success key performance indicators. Finally, Section 5 discusses and documents the topic conclusions.