News Forum - Thailand aims to be global tech talent hub by 2030

[Thaiger]

Thailand is on the brink of becoming a global hub hotspot, thanks to its strategic location, abundant resources, and savvy policies aimed at drawing in young professionals, according to industry bigwigs. The strategy, highlighted at the Techsauce Global Summit 2024 Home for Tech Talent panel, seeks to boost knowledge transfer and export future talent. Karndee … …

The story Thailand aims to be global tech talent hub by 2030 as seen on Thaiger News.

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[johng]

Another hub.

[AussieBob]

I wonder what is the actual SEAsia hubs to hub claims ratio? I would say 1 to a 1000.  Electronics manufacturing and exports, Vehicle manufacturing and exports - that is it - nothing else comes to mind. The  top Thai companies (besides Delta Electronics) are all domestic focused - and the vehicle companies are all subsidiaries of overseas companies. Thailand exports a lot of agricultural products - 90% of total exports - so I guess they are a hub for Agricultural Exports.  Obviously Thailand is also a tourism hub for SEAsia, but with TAT being measured on arrival numbers, versus a proven accurate and independent measure of economic contribution by tourism, me thinks that 'business' will continue to decline while TAT focuses on larger numbers of cheap spending Indians, 'zero-dollar' Chinese groups, and ignores the decline in high spending western tourists.    High Tech industries? Unlikely Thailand will ever will be anything more than a Manufacturing location - but with Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia taking more and more of that 'business' their future aint looking that bright to me.  Agriculture and Tourism and Manufacturing seems to me to be their strength - they aint ever going to compete against Singapore or HK. 

[Khunmark]

1 hour ago, AussieBob said:

I wonder what is the actual SEAsia hubs to hub claims ratio? I would say 1 to a 1000.  Electronics manufacturing and exports, Vehicle manufacturing and exports - that is it - nothing else comes to mind. The  top Thai companies (besides Delta Electronics) are all domestic focused - and the vehicle companies are all subsidiaries of overseas companies. Thailand exports a lot of agricultural products - 90% of total exports - so I guess they are a hub for Agricultural Exports.  Obviously Thailand is also a tourism hub for SEAsia, but with TAT being measured on arrival numbers, versus a proven accurate and independent measure of economic contribution by tourism, me thinks that 'business' will continue to decline while TAT focuses on larger numbers of cheap spending Indians, 'zero-dollar' Chinese groups, and ignores the decline in high spending western tourists.    High Tech industries? Unlikely Thailand will ever will be anything more than a Manufacturing location - but with Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia taking more and more of that 'business' their future aint looking that bright to me.  Agriculture and Tourism and Manufacturing seems to me to be their strength - they aint ever going to compete against Singapore or HK. 

I agree with you about about Thailand’s competitors, taking business from Thailand. Vietnam in particular has been aggressively expanding its industrial capacity. However regional prosperity is in no small way becoming a willingness to engage with China. This is an indisputable fact of life for all ASEAN nations. Thailand under Prayut was less willing to do this than the current regime.
 

 

What is less clear is tangible benefits for the average citizen in Thailand. There is already disquiet amongst the local traders that their goods are being undercut in price by Chinese imports and there is also price pressures on goods that produced locally and sold to the Chinese. Added to this a water rights for fishing in Mekong delta. And the infiltration into of organised crime syndicates. The decision to build a casino here will exacerbate that problem.

 

 

The Chinese government have a large influence on the travel decisions of its citizens and the Chinese are the goose that lays the golden egg on the tourist dollar front. The zero dollar tourist which you speak of is a thing of the past for two reasons. Firstly, the Chinese tourist began to realise the zero dollar tours were an absolute rip off and word travels fast. And secondly the Chinese people have become more confident in travelling alone, without using tour groups as they did in the past. These types of tourist are particularly prevalent in the north of Thailand where I live and it is evident every time you leave the house.

 

To give you an example of how prices have been artificially inflated, I went to a bakery this morning and there was some freshly baked sour dough loaves sitting on the counter at 290 baht. That roughly equates to 15 dollars Australian. But it’s not the Farangs that are buying them as you might think. It’s the wealthy Chinese tourists who have a newly acquired taste for bread and pastries. Same applies for Durian. The price of a durian is largely out reach for the local population due to Chinese demand for the stuff.

[AussieBob]

18 hours ago, Khunmark said:

I agree with you about about Thailand’s competitors, taking business from Thailand. Vietnam in particular has been aggressively expanding its industrial capacity. However regional prosperity is in no small way becoming a willingness to engage with China. This is an indisputable fact of life for all ASEAN nations. Thailand under Prayut was less willing to do this than the current regime.
 

What is less clear is tangible benefits for the average citizen in Thailand. There is already disquiet amongst the local traders that their goods are being undercut in price by Chinese imports and there is also price pressures on goods that produced locally and sold to the Chinese. Added to this a water rights for fishing in Mekong delta. And the infiltration into of organised crime syndicates. The decision to build a casino here will exacerbate that problem.

The Chinese government have a large influence on the travel decisions of its citizens and the Chinese are the goose that lays the golden egg on the tourist dollar front. The zero dollar tourist which you speak of is a thing of the past for two reasons. Firstly, the Chinese tourist began to realise the zero dollar tours were an absolute rip off and word travels fast. And secondly the Chinese people have become more confident in travelling alone, without using tour groups as they did in the past. These types of tourist are particularly prevalent in the north of Thailand where I live and it is evident every time you leave the house.

 

To give you an example of how prices have been artificially inflated, I went to a bakery this morning and there was some freshly baked sour dough loaves sitting on the counter at 290 baht. That roughly equates to 15 dollars Australian. But it’s not the Farangs that are buying them as you might think. It’s the wealthy Chinese tourists who have a newly acquired taste for bread and pastries. Same applies for Durian. The price of a durian is largely out reach for the local population due to Chinese demand for the stuff.

Good point about the Chinese and their impacts across all SEAsia - that is very true and they are the gorilla in the house and must be taken into account.  Thailand has strong ties to China, but that is not doing them a lot of good - especially in manufacturing investments.

 

However, just like the West, their foreign investments tend to be 'outposts' of their own manufacturing industries and Thailand does not get as much of the Chinese investments as Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam - in fact Thailand's share is shrinking because of increasing costs, inferior benefits on offer, and political uncertainty (the PM just being sacked will not be helping). Regarding tourists it is very anecdotal past the numbers and local observances, unlike investments which are easily researched, but it looks to me like Thailand is getting less of the well-heeled and more of the cheap-charlies. The Chinese big spenders go to Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and Korea locally (or US and Australia Canada and Europe), as far as I am aware. 

[Ramanathan.P]

Well....a quikie is always a quikie. And the country is very much depending on quikie in everything. It is time for the country to Think and plan ahead and get rid of the quickie mindset....

[NonThaiKiwi]

When I first arrived in Thailand, I thought Soi 4 Nana Plaza was the home of hubs... Well at least 3.

. 

Cause when I had a look around all I could say was hubba hubba hubba. 

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Right I'll grab my coat