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CAUTION: The following links and
accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation
in Thailand in the early years of the 21st Century. Some of these links
may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated,
misleading or even false. No attempt has been made to validate
their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of poverty are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring the relationship between distribution of labor and
per-capita GDP, for example. Perhaps
your paper could focus on life expectancy or infant mortality. Other factors of interest might be
unemployment, literacy, access to basic services, etc. On the other hand, you might choose to
include some of the possible outgrowths of poverty such as Human Trafficking,
Street Children,
or even Prostitution. There is a lot to the subject of
Poverty. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. *** ARCHIVES *** The World Factbook - Thailand U.S. Central Intelligence Agency CIA www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html [accessed 17
November 2020] World Factbook
website has moved to ---> www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/thailand/ [accessed 6 January 2021] With a
relatively well-developed infrastructure, a free-enterprise economy, and
generally pro-investment policies, Thailand is highly dependent on
international trade, with exports accounting for about two thirds of GDP.
Thailand’s exports include electronics, agricultural commodities, automobiles
and parts, and processed foods. The industry and service sectors produce
about 90% of GDP. The agricultural sector, comprised mostly of small-scale
farms, contributes only 10% of GDP but employs about one third of the labor
force. Thailand has attracted an estimated 3.0-4.5 million migrant workers,
mostly from neighboring countries.
Over the last few decades, Thailand has reduced poverty substantially. GDP -
per capita (PPP): $17,900 (2017
est.) Labor
force - by occupation: agriculture:
31.8% industry:
16.7% services: 51.5% (2017 est.) Unemployment
rate: 0.7% (2017
est.) Population
below poverty line: 7.2% (2015
est.) Maternal
mortality rate: 37 deaths/100,000 live births (2017 est.) Infant
mortality rate: total: 8.6 deaths/1,000 live births Life
expectancy at birth: total population: 75.6 years Drinking
water source: improved: total: 100% of population Physicians
density: 0.81 physicians/1,000 population (2017) Sanitation
facility access: improved: total: 99.9% of
population Electricity
access: electrification - total population: 100% (2016) The
Borgen Project - Thailand borgenproject.org/category/thailand/ [accessed 15 March 2021] The Borgen Project works with U.S. leaders to utilize the
United States’ platform behind efforts toward improving living conditions for
the world’s poor. It is an innovative,
national campaign that is working to make poverty a focus of U.S. foreign
policy. It believes that leaders of
the most powerful nation on earth should be doing more to address global
poverty. From ending segregation to providing women with the right to vote,
nearly every wrong ever righted in history was achieved through advocacy. The
Borgen Project addresses the big picture, operating
at the political level advancing policies and programs that improve living
conditions for those living on less than $1 per day. ~
The Program Tackling Poverty Eradication In Thailand borgenproject.org/poverty-eradication-in-thailand/ ~
Treating Mental Health In Thailand borgenproject.org/mental-health-in-thailand/ ~
Disability And Poverty In Thailand borgenproject.org/disability-and-poverty-in-thailand/ ~
Harmless Harvest: Sustainable Coconut Farming borgenproject.org/harmless-harvest/ ~
Pledge For Women’s Empowerment In Thailand borgenproject.org/womens-empowerment-in-thailand-2/ ~
Healthcare In Thailand: Bridging The Gap borgenproject.org/healthcare-in-thailand/ ~
How Ricult Is Fighting Rural Poverty In Thailand borgenproject.org/rural-poverty-in-thailand/ Tackling
poverty from the top Chatrudee Theparat, Bangkok Post, 28 December 2020 www.bangkokpost.com/business/2042271/tackling-poverty-from-the-top accessed 28 December 2020] Q: How
has the government tried to drive Thailand to meet the UN's SDGs? A:
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon,
chairman of the Committee on Sustainable Development Goals, signed an order
on Sept 14 to establish the subcommittee to drive Thailand to meet the target
SDGs. Among
17 SDGs, the most challenging issues are poverty and hunger. If the
government succeeds in handling these dual issues, we can step up to other
targets such as education, good health and well-being. The 17
SDGs are zero poverty; zero hunger; good health and well-being; quality
education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean
energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and
infrastructure; reduce inequality; sustainable cities and communities;
responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water;
life on land; peace, justice and strong institutions; and partnerships to
achieve the goals. In
Thailand, poverty is mostly found in the farm sector, which covers 30 million
people. The pandemic has resulted in massive unemployment, with many jobless
people heading to their hometowns in the farm sector. We're
proposing the SDG Committee implement a number of measures to increase income
in the sector. Pandemic
wipes out years of progress on Asian poverty, from Indonesia to the
Philippines and Thailand Resty Woro Yuniar, South China Morning Post SCMP, 13 December 2020 [Long
URL] [accessed 13 December 2020] The 4.2
million rupiah (US$298) Lasmi earns working at the
factory each month is not enough to cover the family’s expenses, and a cash
handout of 2.4 million rupiah from the government went straight to buying
baby milk formula, nappies and other essentials for her one-year-old
daughter, she said. So she
borrowed 10 million rupiah from a bank and another four million from a loan
shark, who charges so much interest that Lasmi
fears she might never pay the money back. Official
government figures will not be announced until January, but according to the
World Bank 115 million Indonesians have been left vulnerable to poverty by
the pandemic. The
World Bank in Thailand www.worldbank.org/en/country/thailand/overview [accessed 21 April 2021] Thailand
is one of the great development success stories. Due to smart economic
policies it has become an upper middle income economy and is making progress
towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. Looking
back a few years … Advameg, Inc., Encyclopedia of the Nations www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Thailand-ECONOMY.html [accessed 8 December 2020] Structurally
the economy has continued to mature. From 1986 to 1996, agriculture employed
about 57% of the labor force while agriculture's contribution to the GDP
dropped from 16.7% to about 10%. In 2001, agriculture employed a reported 38%
of the labor force while accounting for 11% of the GDP. Thailand has evolved
a mobile labor market in which many workers migrate between agricultural jobs
in the country and self-employment and/or light industry jobs in the cities
and industrialized zones. Official unemployment was at a low of1.5% in the
last boom years, 1996 and 1997, and then peaked
at4.4% in 1998. Post-crisis, unemployment rates have slowly declined to 4.2%
in 1999, 3.6% in 2000, 3.3% in 2001 and a projected 3.2% in 2002. The
government's decision not to forcibly repatriate a large number of foreign
workers, implementing instead its first "amnesty" program in
September 2001 (which gave work permits to about 360,000 foreign migrants
employed mostly in semi-skilled jobs in the fisheries and construction}, has
helped slow the decline of the unemployment rate. Official figures, moreover,
do not adequately reflect the seasonal unemployment of about 2 million agricultural
workers during one third of the year. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT
COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Prof. Martin
Patt, "Poverty - Thailand", http://gvnet.com/poverty/Thailand.htm,
[accessed <date>] |
