Economic Development in Thailand

Thailand was a major client of the World Bank, which touted it as part of the Asian economic "miracle" in the 1980s. It was also a client of the International Monetary Fund, receiving development money designed to improve its developing economy. In the 1990s, under pressure from the IMF, Thailand was forced to open up many domestic industries to foreign capital. That situation, combined with changes in bankruptcy and property laws enabled foreign companies to invest in or buy outright local companies. If the IMF's demand seemed like an undue intrusion into the domestic economy of that country, Thailand's economy did not greatly suffer. Indeed, between 1945 and 2000, especially from the 1970s onward, the gross domestic product of Thailand was positive in every fiscal year except 1997-1998.

The dip in GDP in the late 1990s was by no means confined to Thailand. It was due to the banking crises and the "flight to quality" of capital that began in 1996 with the collapse of the Thai currency, the baht, and similar collapses of confidence in the cash positions in virtually all regions of the world outside the Anglo-American ambit: South Korea, Japan, Russia, Mexico, and Argentina. Until the financial collapse of 1997, Thailand was described as one of the economic success stories of postwar Asia, sometimes being considered Asia's fifth economic dragon, or tiger, after Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Even now, it is w

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onfucian, hence strongly patriarchal and, in attitudes, much more strongly attached to the culture, and history, and norms of China than indigenous Thai people are. Integration of Yunnanese with Thai culture has been on the whole limited. Among the Yunnanese, women's roles as wives and mothers are paramount. As a practical matter that has meant that Yunnanese women have not much entered the work force, as Thai women have, but have been mainly engaged in the marriage-dowry-children dynamic. Consistent with Confucian tradition, marriages are arranged and negotiated by family elders, and girls' acquiescence in everything involved there is an index of their virtue. Yunnanese women who do not have traditional family elders or ties may be more or less forced into the labor market after minimal education. They have been identified as petty entrepreneurs or dressmakers, but employment for women outside the home is disparaged by the Yunnanese. Indeed, Yunnanese culture tends to view Thai culture, including those features of it that encourage female employment outside the domestic sphere, disparagingly. In any case, Yunnanese women who do work outside the home, for whatever reason, are disparaged as surely as Thai culture more generally is.
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 6941
Approximate Pages = 28 (250 words per page)

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