Introduction

This chapter presents the background to Thailand’s economic transformations during the 1980s, from an import-substitution economy to an export-oriented one, and the increasing international integration of the Thai economy. As most foreign investments were mainly in manufactured exports, the growth of Thailand’s exports multiplied greatly during the latter half of the 1980s. The chapter explains why and how infrastructure development in Thailand has turned into a political issue, and how the politicization of telecommunications development is related to Thailand’s broader political economy. The new forms of telecommunications networks and services have greatly enhanced the facilitation of information flows and the exchange of ideas, which in turn have given rise to ideas about political and economic reforms. Together with the export strategy, financial austerity and other economic measures successfully brought Thailand out of economic recession in 1986. The high economic growth during the past four decades was a result of major economic restructurings from the agricultural to industrialized economy.