The One Tambon One Product (OTOP) campaign was launched in 2001 by the former Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who assumed power in April 2001 and was kicked out of office by an anti-corruption street campaign in early April 2006. The OTOP aimed to bring about employment opportunities and income generation by employing local resources and indigenous wisdom, and further to the effect that it helps conserve their respective cultural heritages and develop human resources, holding back the rural-urban migration to ease the increasingly deteriorated urban population pressure and to secure balanced social and economic development between the rural and the urban areas.
Following a general description of the OTOP movement in Thailand, this research mainly focuses on the considerable achievement of the OTOP campaign in Chiang Rai, the northernmost province of Thailand, where there are diversified local resources and indigenous cultures and traditions, including a large population of diverse hilltribe ethnic groups. It recognizes that most of the OTOP products produced in the province marked strong traits of local traditions and has been widely accepted both at home and abroad. However, the author also argues that, based on the findings of long-term field studies, the Thai OTOP movement is far less being a successful story in rural development practice.