Economic growth matters, but is just one facet of development. Policy makers are required to reconcile economic, social and environmental objectives to ensure that their country’s development path is sustainable and that the lives of its citizens improve.

Thailand has made impressive progress over the past several decades, both in economic and social terms. Sustained strong growth and a rapidly modernising economy have turned Thailand into an upper-middle income country with Bangkok as a strong urban centre. Economic success has brought impressive social advancement. Based on national definitions, poverty has plummeted from 60% in 1990 to 7% today, while education and health services have considerably expanded and improved.

Structural change is needed to create more quality jobs and overcome regional imbalances

Thailand has made remarkable socio-economic progress over the past several decades. Sustained strong growth has turned it into an upper-middle income country, brought down poverty and delivered advances in a number of well-being dimensions. Even so, rising prosperity has not been shared equally across the country. Today, Thailand strives to pursue a development path to benefit all, seeking to reinvigorate economic transformation and reduce multifaceted inequalities in the face of a rapidly ageing population and technological change. This overview presents Thailand’s development from a comparative and historical perspective and assesses performance across a range of well-being outcomes. On the basis of the analysis in the subsequent chapters, which cover the five critical areas of the Sustainable Development Goals – people, prosperity, partnerships, planet and peace – the overview identifies the key constraints facing policy makers in their pursuit of inclusive development.

The People pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development focuses on quality of life in all its dimensions, and emphasises the international community’s commitment to ensuring all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity, equality and good health.Thailand’s path from a low-income to an upper-middle-income country over recent decades is widely hailed as a development success story. Poverty has fallen impressively and inequality is on a downwards trend, but more efforts are needed to reduce still widespread informality and persistent, substantial regional inequalities, and to further improve living standards, especially for those who currently work informally. To achieve these objectives, the government needs to: (i) consider tax and regulatory measures to encourage formalisation; (ii) boost the participation rates of informal workers in social protection schemes; (iii) expand adequate social safety nets for poor households and the elderly; (iv) prepare the healthcare system for an ageing and modernising society; and (v) improve the education system, particularly in rural areas. Gaps also remain in ensuring women’s political participation and reducing gender-based violence.

The Prosperity pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for an integrated approach based on boosting productivity through diversification, upgrading technology and innovation, and increasing employment and entrepreneurship. Thailand needs to address all these challenges to achieve high-income country status by 2036. Over the past decade, limited structural reform and capital investment have held back productivity growth and improvements in well-being, and Thailand has lost ground vis-à-vis regional comparators. More recently, however, economic growth has started to regain momentum helped by a pick-up in global trade, which has supported exports, and by a substantial public infrastructure investment programme. Moving forward, Thailand will need to boost productive capacity in the face of intensified competition with regional peers and rapid demographic ageing. In addition, productivity gains will be increasingly necessary to drive growth. Key areas of focus include improving human resource development, encouraging technology diffusion via cluster development, promoting innovation and digitalisation, improving the SME policy framework and expanding regional integration, as emphasised in the government’s 12th Plan and Thailand 4.0.

The Partnerships pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development cuts across all the goals focusing on the mobilisation of resources needed to implement the agenda.Thailand’s “sufficiency economy philosophy” encourages the prioritisation of long-term sustainability over short-term benefits. As such, Thailand has a long history of fiscal prudence that has served the country well in times of economic and political instability. However, relying on current fiscal buffers to finance foreseeable expenditure pressures is not sufficient or sustainable. A rapidly ageing population and shrinking workforce will weigh on future public finances and on the ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.To ensure that Thailand is well placed over the medium term to meet growing social, environmental and infrastructure requirements, the government should: (i) increase tax revenues by broadening the tax base and enhancing collection efficiency; (ii) facilitate greater private sector investment in productive infrastructure; and (iii) reform the healthcare and pension systems to increase their efficiency and effectiveness.

The Planet pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers six environmental areas including water, clean energy, responsible production and consumption, climate action, life below water and life on land. Rapid industrialisation, urbanisation and the expansion of intensive agriculture in Thailand placed a heavy strain on the environment. In the past two decades, the country has made improvements with respect to environmental performance and has set ambitious targets in areas such as greenhouse gas emissions. Remaining challenges include: managing water resources to mitigate floods and droughts, designing strategies for resilient and sustainable development of urban areas, increasing forest area and enhancing land-ownership opportunities, conserving and sustainably using biodiversity, improving air and water quality (especially in major urban centres and industrial zones), dealing with growing volumes of solid waste, and addressing climate change.

The Peace pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development encompasses a diverse range of issues including stability and effective governance. Reforming the public sector is high on the government’s agenda, but involves a number of challenges: the gap between planning and implementation of policy objectives remains large; insufficient public participation in policy making is undermining the efficient allocation of resources toward public needs and development goals; under-development of evidence-based regulations is hampering the creation of a business-friendly environment essential to high value-added activities; and high levels of perceived corruption are weakening business confidence and public trust in the government.Thailand’s 12th Economic and Social Development Plan emphasises the importance of public sector reform. It sets out measures to strengthen co-ordination across ministries and agencies aimed at improving implementation of policy programmes, boosting public participation in policy making, improving online access to government services and combating corruption by strengthening integrity measures. The upcoming 20-year National Strategy and the accompanying National Reform Plan are expected to pave the way for future development. However, an inclusive and consultative process will be essential to ensure the success of reform efforts.