Competitiveness and the macroeconomic framework; Restructuring the financial system; Competitiveness of the industrial sector; Export Competitiveness and spatial strategies; Removing bottlenecks in infrastructure services.

Competitiveness of a country requires continuous upgrading and, sometimes, major transformation. Thailand is at the crossroad. It can no longer pursue a strategy based on low-cost advantages, but its capability achievements are still too low to become an advanced economy. This book points out weaknesses of Thailand's national innovation system or education and suggests how the country should develop new capabilities to survive and prosper in the globalized and fiercely competitive world. It will be useful to researchers and students who want to learn more about Thailand and emerging countries, and also to policy-makers and executives involved in economic and industrial development. Co-published with IRASEC (Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia), Bangkok

An important question for researchers and policy markers is how to efficiently allocate limited resources for sustainable economic growth. In this paper, Global Competitiveness Reports of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Competitiveness Yearbooks of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) have to been used to identify important strengths and important weaknesses of Thailand. Important strengths and weaknesses are identified based on two criterions. First criterion is the contribution or the "weight" of each factor in the national competitiveness score. The contribution of each factor can be determined statistically; however, not without difficulty. The second criterion is the ranking among a group of countries. Factors that have both high contribution and good ranking are important strengths while factors that have both high contribution and bad ranking are important weaknesses. Relying on the subcomponents of the national competitiveness statistics, the strengths of Thailand lie in its big market size, strong labor market conditions and good infrastructure system. However, the weaknesses of Thailand lie in its poor health-related factors, technological readiness, and institutions. Finally, we provide some recommendation on how to improve the national competitiveness of Thailand at present and in the future.

Thailand Beyond the Crisis includes recent research to give an accurate and up to date picture of the status of Thailand's economic recovery. The Asian economic crisis began in Thailand and ended a decade of sustained economic boom. This book identifies the role of policy errors involving both the Thai government and the IMF that lead to the crash of the fastest growing economy in the world. Warr addresses the consequences of the crisis, including sharply increased poverty incidence and a backlog of non- performing loans which clogged the banking system, delaying recovery. Key content includes: * the Social Consequences of the crisis, and alternatives * public sector reform * implications of a floating exchange rate * education * urbanisation and the environment.

Thailand is a society in political, economic and social transition. Change is happening to varying degrees-at the national level and at the regional level where there are contrasting issues. Changes are positive, some are negative. This book looks at the various aspects of change as it impacts on business and the lives of the people.