Development of Manufacturing Industries for Export in Thailand

Development of ManufacturingIndustries for Export in Thailand YasukichiYAsuBA* For a long time, Thailand was under the strong inhibiting influence of patrimonialism, and was unable to develop either agricultural or industrial technology.Even in the period after 1950, patri- monial forces tended to twist the direction of industrial deve]opment by the so-called import-substitution policy.Manufactured exports (exclusive of tin) accounted for only 5,4% of total exports as latc as 1970.A change in government policy towards export prornetion, investment in infrastructure, improvement in education and the transfer of technology appears to have started to cause an increasingly rapid development of the most Iabor-intensive type of manufactures since 1970.The proportion of manufactured exports in total exports increased to 14,6% in 1975 and then to 28.8% by 1980.The rise in this ratio is particularly impressive, since the 1970's was a period in which Thai exports grew at a very high average rate of 11.7% per year.In an effort to shed more ]ight on the cause of such a rapid structura] change, the author interviewed the managers of 13 Thai corporations in the fall of 1980.The findings are quite intercsting.First, in the Iast five years, the productivity of labor-intensive industries tended to increase rapidly coupled with