ABSTRACT
Traditionally, the most prominent role of business associations in the economy was the assistance given by the Board of Trade and the commodities associations to the official regulation of the agricultural exports of the country. Until the Third National Economic and Social Development Plan came into effect in 1972, Thailand pursued an import-substitution strategy. To relieve the balance of payment constraint, a range of export promotion measures were introduced during the period of the Third and Fourth National Economic and Social Development Plans. Aware of the government’s grave concern, the newly established Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking, proposed that Premier Kriangsak create a cabinet-level joint public-private committee to take care of the trade deficit and other urgent economic problems. The capacity of the government to make economic policy without business input if it so chose was also demonstrated in its efforts to stabilize the international balance of payments of the country between 1983 and 1984.
