ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of government and other institutional factors in selective promotion of industries and firms as part of the development process using an institutional framework. It then reviews how the bureaucracy, political power and private business have been involved in the process of economic policy determination in Thailand. The chapter uses institutional analysis to help explain the growth of particular industries, namely the Thai gems and jewellery industry and the Siam Cement Group. The private business class in manufacturing, trade and services, and individuals or groups in this class have made significant in-roads into economic policy-making in various ways. But in the final analysis, bureaucrats and technocrats in the public sector still hold the key to the formulation and implementation of most economic policies. The economic crisis in Thailand became very serious in 1997 with economic contraction and drastic devaluation of the baht.
