RURAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

THAILAND

INTRODUCTION

Thailand's urban area grew from about 2,400 square kilometers to 2,700 between 2000 and
2010, an average annual growth rate of 1.4%. ... Its urban population (the population living
in urban areas of more than 100,000 people) increased during this period from 9.3 million to
slightly less than 11.8 million.
Rural settlement

The dominant settlement pattern in Thailand remains the rural village, where the primary
occupation is wet-rice cultivation. Migration to urban areas has increased significantly since the
mid-20th century, but the majority of the country’s people still consider their principal place of
residence to be the village, even when they live and work for extended periods in
urban environments.

There are a number of settlement types that vary depending on location. Villagers in the
northeast live in houses clustered together on higher ground, surrounded by rice fields. In the
north, by contrast, where most villages are found in the alluvial basins of major rivers,
population growth and improvements in transportation have tended to disperse the villages away
from the rivers and toward the main railroads and highways, reducing the amount of land
available for growing rice. The north also contains the majority of the country’s hill settlements,
which are similar to, though smaller than, the nucleated villages of northeastern Thailand.

The Chao Phraya delta is densely settled along areas of high ground that are free from flooding.
A vast network of irrigation canals has modified the pattern of settlement and transportation. The
mobility offered by small motorboats utilizing the canals has made it possible to establish
villages to the east and west, away from the rivers. New highways have also modified settlement
patterns, especially at river crossings and canals where new towns have appeared.

Urban settlement

Urbanization in Thailand, as in many other developing countries, has proceeded rapidly since
World War II, but growth has been highly uneven. The Greater Bangkok Metropolitan Area,
which generally includes Bangkok proper and its twin city, Thonburi, and the contiguous cities
of Samut Prakan to the southeast and Nonthaburi to the north, remains the dominant and only
major urban centre in the country. The total population of this area is some 30 times larger than
that of Udon Thani, the next largest city, and several times larger than that of the next 10 largest
cities combined. Nonetheless, cities such as Khon Kaen, Ubon Ratchasima, Udon Thani,
and Nakhon Ratchasima in the northeast; Chiang Mai in the north; Hat Yai, Surat Thani,
and Nakhon
Si Thammarat in the south; and Pattaya on the eastern seaboard grew quite significantly since
the last decades of the 20th century and have assumed some of the urban characteristics of
Bangkok.

BACKGROUND
Demographic trends

Thailand’s population rose rapidly in the 20th century, especially during the period between
1950 and 1970, when the government supported such growth. Since then, however, official
policies and private family-planning programs have slowed this growth dramatically, making the
country a model for other countries seeking to reduce their high population growth rates. The
population profile that resulted from the earlier increase has nonetheless placed demands on the
country’s education, housing, health, and employment systems.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

Rice is not only the main staple crop of the country but also the primary agricultural export.
Thailand has for decades been one of the world’s largest rice exporters. Although high-yield
varieties of rice were adopted in the 1960s, rice yields are much lower than in East Asia, owing
primarily to less-efficient labour inputs. The main commercial rice-producing areas of Thailand
are the Chao Phraya basin and the Khorat Plateau. Agricultural production has diversified
significantly to meet domestic and world market demand. Among the crops produced for the
market are cassava, corn (maize), kenaf (a jutelike fibre), longans, mangoes, pineapples, durians,
cashews, vegetables, and flowers. Cash crops such as rubber, coffee, sugarcane, and many fruits
are produced mostly on large holdings owned by the agribusinesses that began to emerge in the
last decades of the 20th century. Tobacco was once an important cash crop, but it declined
considerably as demand dropped.
The northeast of Thailand has long been known for its water buffalo and cattle. As agriculture
became increasingly mechanized, the demand for water buffalo, once used for plowing and
harrowing, decreased markedly. However, cattle production in the northeast increased because of
a significant rise in demand for beef in urban areas. The northeast is also a major producer of
pigs, to meet a growing demand for pork. Chicken production expanded dramatically since the
mid-20th century, but increasingly it has been undertaken in central Thailand by companies
rather than by smallholders. The outbreak of bird flu (avian influenza) in Southeast Asia in the
early 21st century prompted the government on several occasions to order the destruction of
large numbers of chickens, leading to an overall decline in poultry production and heavy revenue
losses for producers. Chickens and smaller numbers of ducks continue to be raised for the
domestic market.
Thailand was once one of the major exporters of hardwoods, especially teak and Dipterocarpus
alatus, known in Thai as yang. In 1989 the government imposed a ban on logging following a
catastrophic landslide in the southern part of the country that was largely blamed on the
deforestation caused by excessive logging in the region. Some cutting for local uses has
continued, and, although other types of timber from Thai forests have been exported illegally, the
ban has generally been successful. Concerted efforts have also been mounted to conserve
existing forests and to expand forest reserves, but those actions led to conflicts with peoples who
have long lived in the areas affected.
Fish and other aquatic life have been the major source of protein in the Thai diet since ancient
times. As deforestation and pollution of streams and rivers led to a decline in freshwater wild
fish, there has been a marked increase in the raising of fish in ponds, especially in northeastern
Thailand. Since the 1970s, Thailand has been one of the world’s major exporters of shrimp, fish,
and fish products. However, the creation of shrimp farms and the overfishing of the Gulf of
Thailand sparked disputes between commercial interests and villagers who depend on fish and
shrimp as basic foodstuffs. Many traditional marine fishing areas have become polluted, and
shrimp farms have been especially damaging to coastal mangrove forests. Some recovery efforts
are under way.
Resources and power

Tin, mined mostly in the peninsula, has long been among Thailand’s most valuable mineral
resources, and the country has become one of the world’s largest producers. Fluctuations in the
world tin market, however, have caused output to be reduced. Other important mining and
quarrying operations produce coal (lignite), zinc, gypsum, fluorite, tungsten, limestone, and
marble. Rubies and sapphires are mined along the east coast of the peninsula.
Industrial expansion has increased demand for electricity and fossil fuels. Electricity in Thailand
comes primarily from hydroelectric plants in the central plains, the north, the northeast,
and Laos, with supplementary power coming from thermal plants using natural gas and lignite.
Thailand has significant offshore natural gas reserves and less-abundant onshore oil resources. In
the 1990s a controversial pipeline was constructed to transport natural gas from Myanmar to
Thailand, but domestic production also expanded rapidly. By the early 21st century, Thailand’s
dependency on imported petroleum and natural gas for energy had decreased markedly.
Manufacturing

The growth in manufacturing since 1970 has been especially dramatic, reflecting the large
investments made by private firms. Although growth was initially spearheaded by the garment
industry, electronic products assumed the vanguard in the mid-1980s, propelled by investment
and transfer of production from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Since the late
1990s, Thailand has been a notable exporter of motor vehicles and, more recently,
telecommunications equipment. While industrial development has been concentrated in and
around Bangkok, production has also expanded along the eastern seaboard and, more recently,
into northern, especially northeastern, Thailand, where much of the labour for all industries
originates.
Finance

The Bank of Thailand, established in 1942, issues the baht, acts as central banker to the
government and to the commercial banks, and serves as the country’s financial agent in dealing
with international financial markets, international monetary organizations, and other central
banks. Together with the Ministry of Finance, it is at the pinnacle of the government’s economic
technocracy and plays the key role in managing the economy. Three other government financial
agencies are also important: the Board of Investment, which offers financial incentives to
domestic and foreign entrepreneurs; the National Economic and Social Development Board,
which formulates the government’s five-year plans; and the Budget Bureau, which compiles the
annual national budget. These government bodies focus primarily on creating the proper
financial conditions for business to grow and prosper, leaving business decisions themselves to
the private sector.
Commercial banks grew out of business syndicates established in the 1940s by business families
with Chinese roots. In the post-World War II era, these banks have not only controlled the
financing of trade; they have also played a key role in industry by channeling loans to business
sectors and enterprises with high growth potential and by cultivating close working relationships
with foreign investors. A restructuring of Thai commercial banking took place as a result of the
economic crisis of the late 1990s; foreign holdings significantly increased, while the number of
family-controlled banks dropped sharply. Some of the original family interests and leadership,
however, persisted despite foreign ownership. Close ties between commercial banks and political
leaders and government officials have been important for coordinating economic policy, but they
have also been a breeding ground for corruption. In addition to banks, other important private-
sector financial institutions include finance companies, which have become major sources of
loans for the real estate market, and the securities firms active in the Securities Exchange of
Thailand, the country’s stock exchange.
In the mid-20th century foreign investment emerged as one of the most important factors in the
rapid growth of the national economy. As part of the liberalization of the country’s financial
markets in the early 1990s, the government established the Bangkok International Banking
Facility (BIBF), an offshore banking entity that became a major conduit for international capital.
Originally envisioned as a means to establish Bangkok as a major financial centre rivaling Hong
Kong and Singapore and serving all of Southeast Asia, the BIBF in fact became a channel by
which foreign funds (primarily in the form of short-term loans) could enter Thailand’s domestic
economy.

Trade

Thailand’s trade patterns have changed dramatically from the early 1980s, when more than two-
thirds of export earnings came from agriculture and less than one-third from manufacturing. By
the early 21st century, agriculture contributed roughly one-eighth of export earnings and about
one-tenth of gross domestic product, while manufacturing accounted for virtually all the rest; the
share of import expenditures for machinery, components, and raw materials, moreover, had
increased from less than half to more than three-fourths.
The country’s main trading partners are Japan, the United States, China, Singapore,
and Malaysia. The most important import categories by value are machinery; chemicals and
related products; petroleum; iron, steel, and other metals; and raw materials of various types.
Machinery is also an important manufactured export, along with chemicals and chemical
products, telecommunications equipment, road vehicles, and clothing and accessories. The
United States is among Thailand’s largest export markets, and Japan is among the country’s
biggest sources of imports. In the 1990s Thailand’s trade deficit grew markedly until the last part
of the decade, when a trade surplus was achieved largely as a result of a contraction in imports.
Foreign debt declined until the last part of the decade, when it jumped substantially, peaking in
2000, before beginning a descent in the early 21st century.

Services

Bangkok remains the centre of all retailing in the country, but many regional cities, such
as Khorat and Khon Kaen in the northeast, Chiang Mai in the north, and Hat Yai in the south,
have become significant subcentres. In those cities, as in many other towns throughout the
country, large stores and shopping malls charging fixed prices have been established alongside
the smaller shops and traditional markets where bargaining still takes place.

Thailand has been one of the most popular tourist destinations in Southeast Asia since the 1960s.
The government actively began to promote tourism in the early 1980s, and tourism subsequently
became the country’s single largest source of foreign exchange and an important counterbalance
to the country’s frequent annual trade deficits. The number of tourists visiting the country each
year almost tripled between the early 1960s and the early 21st century, helping to make the
service sector more significant than manufacturing as a source of employment. Part of this
activity was the result of a highly visible (though illegal) sex trade during those decades.
However, by the end of the 20th century the increasing number of AIDS cases in Thailand and
other factors had caused the trade to decline.

Thailand places great emphasis on providing quality service at its leading hotels and restaurants,
which has helped to attract many foreign visitors. The most popular tourist destinations outside
of Bangkok are the beach resorts of Pattaya, Phuket, and Koh Samui and the historical cities of
Sukhotai, Ayutthaya, and Chiang Mai. Resort areas such as Phuket and Kho Lak were heavily
damaged by the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, but they recovered quickly.
Labour and taxation

The growth of an industrial export economy has been predicated on the existence of a
large labour force that can be paid relatively low wages. For this reason, governments during the
period of accelerated growth have imposed severe restrictions on unionization. These
restrictions, however, have not prevented thousands of workers, beginning in the late 1980s,
from staging periodic strikes and demonstrations in protest over low wages and occupational
hazards.
The Labour Relations Act of 1975 provided a legal foundation for the establishment of unions.
By the late 1990s there were more than 1,000 unions gathered together into labour federations.
The main labour federations include the Labour Congress of Thailand, the National Congress of
Thai Labour, and the Thai Trade Union Congress. Union participation, however, has remained
low.

Women comprise nearly half of the total workforce. Although the Thai constitution
guarantees equal rights for men and women, women still receive unequal treatment in the
workplace in terms of pay, promotion, and benefits. International and local nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) have issued reports about the exploitation of women in sweatshop labour
and in the sex industry.
Taxes generate the great bulk of the national revenue. The tax system relies on a combination of
personal and corporate income taxes and a value added tax (VAT; a type of sales tax). The VAT
was introduced in 1992 as part of a major restructuring of the tax system that also reduced
personal and corporate income tax rates. The VAT was supposed to be applied only to the price
retailers paid for certain goods and services, but in many cases retailers have also applied it to the
price they charge consumers. In addition, excise taxes are levied on tobacco, petroleum products,
alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, and other products. A national lottery is also a major source
of revenue for the government. Additional tax revenue comes from tariffs on imported products
and certain exports.
Transportation and telecommunications

Bangkok is the centre of Thailand’s water, land, and air transport systems. The rivers of the Chao
Phraya delta have been used since antiquity, and modern irrigation canals have added to the
waterway transportation network. The rail system, constructed from early in the 20th century and
essentially completed in the 1950s, still remains important. It has, however, been overshadowed
by a system of highways and all-weather roads built with the support of the United States
beginning in the 1950s. By the end of the 20th century, roads had been extended into even the
remote upland areas of the north.
Premodern Siam was long involved in international trade, and the choice of Bangkok as the
capital in the late 18th century was based partially on its attraction as a port. The port of
Bangkok, at Khlong Toei, is the largest and busiest in the country, handling nearly all imports
and exports. Newer port facilities on the eastern seaboard have become increasingly important,
especially for the movement of goods to and from the northeastern region of the country.
Don Muang International Airport, north of Bangkok, was the hub of Thailand’s air network until
late 2006, when much of its commercial air traffic was then redirected to Suvarnabhumi, a large
new international airport about 20 miles (30 km) east of the city. However, cracks in its runways
and crowded conditions at the new facility led to the temporary reopening of Don Muang for
both international and domestic flights. Several smaller provincial airports, mostly located at
such popular tourist centres as Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Koh Samui, also handle international
flights. Numerous other airports and airfields accommodating domestic flights are scattered
throughout the country.
Telecommunications have developed rapidly in Thailand, although regionally the country has
lagged behind Singapore and Malaysia. Government policies aimed at privatizing and opening
the sector to greater domestic and international competition accelerated growth in the 1990s.
Wireless phone service has expanded rapidly, owing to the inadequacy of the landline
telephone infrastructure and to the greater flexibility of wireless phones. By the early 21st
century almost every family, including those in rural areas, owned a wireless phone. Internet use
has also grown rapidly since the 1990s, although it has been hindered to some extent by the high
cost of line rental.
Government And Society

Constitutional framework

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy with the monarch as the head of state. While almost every
government since 1932 has accepted constitutional authority, the country has had 17
constitutions, the most recent drafted in 2007. All of these documents have provided for
a National Assembly with a prime minister as head of government. Power is exercised by the
bicameral National Assembly, the Council of Ministers, and the courts in accordance with the
provisions of the constitution and laws passed by the National Assembly. The constitution of
2007 (largely based on that of 1997) provides for the direct election of members of the lower
house of the Assembly, the House of Representatives, to four-year terms, five-sixths from single-
member districts and the remainder based on proportional representation from the political
parties. It also requires the prime minister to be a member of the House of Representatives.
Members of the upper house, the Senate, are directly elected to six-year terms. Legislation
originates in the House of Representatives, but it can be modified or rejected by the Senate.

In May 2014, following a military coup, the 2007 constitution was suspended (except provisions
pertaining to the monarchy), and a council of military leaders took power. That council
appointed a 200-member single-chamber interim legislature in late July. The leader of the
council was named interim prime minister in late August.
The execution of laws is carried out by the civil service, whose members are known
as kharatchakan, “servants of the king.” The bureaucracy, particularly the Ministry of Interior,
has always enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy in administering the country. The number
of elective offices and senior civil-service positions occupied by women is small, though
increasing slowly.
Local government

For most people in Thailand, government is experienced primarily through centrally appointed
officials who hold posts in local administration, the main units of which are provinces
(changwat) and districts (amphur). In the 1990s three new provinces were carved out of the
existing ones, resulting in a total of 76.
A marked devolution of power has taken place since the 1980s. By far the most significant of the
local governing bodies are those in the major cities, including Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and
Pattaya. Locally elected provincial assemblies have little power, but they serve as incubators for
local politicians who may later be elected to the National Assembly. In 1997, communes
(tambon), units consisting of several villages, were given increased powers and the authorization
to elect members of tambon administrative organizations. With new administrative and financial
authority, these bodies have become the most important local democratic units in Thailand.
Headmen of villages (muban) are also elected, but their authority is circumscribed by centrally
appointed district officers and the tambon administrative organizations.
Justice

Thailand had a sophisticated legal system before Western influences led it to adopt a system of
jurisprudence based on European models. The first law codes—dating from as early as the 15th
century—were based on the Indian code of Manu, which arrived by way of the Mon and
the Khmer. As part of the modernizing reforms of the late 19th century, a new legal system was
developed, based primarily on the French (Napoleonic) model. The modernizing government of
King Chulalongkorn also received legal advice from British advisers. A significant aspect of the
legal reforms of the late 19th century was the creation of an independent judiciary. This ideal
proved difficult to realize, however, because of interference by politicians and the continuing
presence of corruption within the system. As part of a series of judicial reforms initiated at the
end of the 20th century, the Supreme Court, with justices appointed by the monarch, was
declared the final court of appeal for both civil and criminal cases; a system of intermediary
appeals courts was established to handle cases from courts of first instance scattered throughout
the country.
Political process

Prior to the 1980s the political process in Thailand was usually controlled by elites whose power
was derived from the military. However, the idea of parliamentary government, first enshrined in
the constitutions of the 1930s, never totally disappeared. Thailand has had universal suffrage
since 1932, and the minimum voting age is 18. Although no laws have prevented women from
involvement in politics, few women have stood for election to the legislature.

Elected parliaments began to gain influence over the political process in the 1980s, and since
1992 governmental power has been exercised through an elected National Assembly, except for
a 15-month period in 2006–07, when the military took control.

The role the military has played in the Thai political process reflects an often enunciated
principle by leaders of the armed forces that only a well-disciplined military can preserve public
order and protect the monarchy. This principle has been challenged both inside and outside of the
legislature by those who see laws developed and passed by an elected National Assembly as the
basis for a diverse yet orderly society. Like military politicians, however, elected officials often
have used their power to advance their own private interests rather than those of the society as a
whole.
Major political parties since the 1990s have included the New Aspiration Party, Democrat Party,
National Development Party, Thai Rak Thai (“Thais Love Thais”), Thai Nation, Social Action
Party, and Thai Citizens’ Party. Following a parliamentary election, the parties with the most
legislative seats typically form a coalition government. In 2007 Thai Rak Thai, the party of the
ousted prime minister, was dissolved, and a new party, People Power Party, was formed; it was
widely viewed as the reincarnation of Thai Rak Thai.

Security
The creation of a technically trained professional military was a notable achievement of the
modernizing reforms adopted at the end of the 19th century. By the 1920s the military, which
had emerged as the most powerful institution of the government, included many officers who
had risen by virtue of their training and ability, not because of kinship ties to the monarch or
high-ranking members of the aristocracy. These officers played a critical role in overthrowing
the absolute monarchy in 1932 and establishing a constitutional monarchy. The military includes
army, navy, and air force branches, although the army has always been the dominant one.
All male citizens in Thailand are required to register for a draft at the age of 18. Only a small
number are actually chosen for two years of required military service, beginning at age 21. Most
of those inducted into the army are from rural communities.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Royal Thai Army, Thailand’s largest military unit,
has been combating a violent insurgency in the far southern provinces, where the people are
mainly Malay-speaking Muslims. The army also has continued to confront incursions on the
western and northern frontiers by insurgents fighting the government in Myanmar and by the
military forces from Myanmar that sometimes pursue those insurgents across the border.
The army has played a dominant role in Thailand’s politics, especially since the end of absolute
rule by the monarch in 1932; it has often taken power through a coup. Strong public protests
against a coup in 1991, the resignation following royal intervention of a government headed by a
general in 1992, and the subsequent moves to ensure democratic government that culminated in
the constitution of 1997 initially seemed to have ended army dominance of the Thai political
system. However, the military coup of September 2006 proved that the pattern was indeed
persistent.
Health and welfare

The rapid growth of the Thai economy since the mid-20th century has enabled the government to
improve health and welfare services significantly, but this economic growth also has produced
marked inequalities in standards of living. A combination of public and private investment has
made it possible for the upper and middle classes in Thailand to have access to some of the best
medical care in the world. Public investments in health care for people living in rural areas
culminated in the early 21st century in a national plan allowing most people access to health care
at nominal costs. Such health-care initiatives have led to major reductions in infant mortality,
advances in the control of infectious diseases, and more reproductive health care. Nonetheless,
the disparity between rural and urban communities in the quality and availability of health care
has widened since the 1960s.
The dramatic drop in birth rates beginning in the late 1960s, coupled with the rapid expansion of
the economy, has made it possible for most people to improve their quality of life. At the same
time, severe poverty continues to exist, particularly in rural areas where land quality is poor or
where people do not own the land they work. Governments since the 1970s have instituted
programs to alleviate poverty, but their policies relating to dam construction, logging, and
fishing, combined with inadequate support for their poverty-reduction programs, have left a large
segment of the rural population impoverished. The quality of life for many citizens actually
declined in the 1990s owing to problems created by unregulated development and the
AIDS epidemic. The situation was further exacerbated by the economic crisis that began in 1997.
A new welfare problem has been emerging in Thailand since the start of the 21st century, as the
growing number of people employed in the country’s many factories face serious risks because
of poor regulation of occupational hazards. Deaths and injuries from industrial accidents have
risen rapidly, prompting increased pressure for better enforcement of industrial safety laws.
Moreover, the drop in birth rate and greater longevity have amounted to a shrinking workforce
that must support a growing population of senior citizens.
While instances of traditional infectious diseases such as cholera, smallpox, malaria, and even
leprosy have been greatly reduced, the number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases has
increased exponentially. Because of cultural tolerance, the rise in disposable income, and a lack
of political will to control the sex industry (which has attracted many tourists), Thailand has one
of the highest per capita rates of prostitution in the world. The country was, therefore,
particularly vulnerable when HIV infections began to spread across the globe. For some years
Thailand had the highest rate of HIV and AIDS infection of any country in Asia. Aggressive
programs launched by the government to promote safe sex practices, however, have reduced the
rate of increase in new HIV infections significantly. Nonetheless, AIDS has continued to claim
the lives of several tens of thousands of people each year, mostly working-age adults.
While the magnitude of the crisis has placed great strains on medical and community resources,
many new types of community-based organizations have emerged, and the government has
dedicated a higher percentage of its health budget to medical care for those afflicted with AIDS
or HIV than have most other Asian countries. The government has also overcome resistance
from foreign pharmaceutical companies in its efforts to make inexpensive drugs available to a
broader segment of the afflicted population.
By the late 20th century, Thailand had established a noteworthy medical-service sector, which
continued to develop in the 21st century. The high standards of medical care at the best private
hospitals in Bangkok and other major cities began to attract attention not only from well-to-do
Thai but also from increasing numbers of foreign patients, especially from the Middle East and
Europe. Other health-care fields for which Thailand has been gaining recognition include
cosmetic surgery and spa treatments.

Housing

Most Thai living outside of the Greater Bangkok Metropolitan Area occupy houses that their
families own. The rapid growth of the Thai economy since the mid-1980s, the emergence of a
prosperous middle class seeking better housing, and the lowering of mortgage interest rates
spurred private-sector developers to construct new housing in urban areas. Beginning with low-
cost row houses and town houses, developers gradually shifted to moderately priced
condominiums aimed at middle-class urban families and luxury condominiums for the wealthy.
Increasingly, middle-class urban Thai have chosen to live in condominiums while they save
money to purchase single-family homes in the suburbs. Many villagers, using earnings from
working in Thailand’s cities or abroad, in turn have built new houses based on urban and
suburban models. The older style of Thai house, constructed from a combination of hardwood
and bamboo materials and set on piles, is rapidly disappearing.

Education

Compulsory education was instituted in the 1920s for the purpose of ensuring that all citizens—
female as well as male—would share the national language and identify with the national
heritage. Prior to that time, education had consisted primarily of males being taught by monks at
Buddhist temples. By the late 1930s almost all children of school age in the country attended
schools established by the government, although few went beyond the four years of
basic primary education. Those who did attend secular secondary and tertiary institutions,
monastic schools, or military and police academies typically entered government service after
completing their schooling.
The linking of government-sponsored education to economic development goals in the 1960s
precipitated a radical transformation in Thailand’s educational system in the last decades of the
20th century. By the early 21st century, education had been made compulsory for nine years or
until a person reached the age of 16, and three years of high school were provided by the
government. Since 2004 two years of preschool have also been provided free of charge. Perhaps
the most-dramatic changes have taken place in higher education. Universities have proliferated
from the first one founded in Bangkok in 1917 (Chulalongkorn University) to dozens of state and
private institutions spread across the country. There are also numerous teachers’ colleges, as well
as open universities, military and police academies, and universities for monks that offer
bachelor’s degrees. Some postsecondary students who do not attend university obtain further
education in business and technical schools. Compared to other countries in the region, Thailand
has one of the highest literacy rates: nearly universal for both men and women.
Cultural Life

Prior to the modernizing reforms begun in the late 19th century under King Chulalongkorn, Thai
cultural life revolved around the Siamese royal court and the wat, the Buddhist temple-
monastery. Many ancient practices associated with the court and the wat have been transformed
into elements of contemporary Thailand’s national heritage. The monarchy, through its
participation in royal functions, state ceremonies, and popular festivals, plays an important role
in nurturing and preserving this heritage. Many state functions, today often shown on television,
begin with the king or other members of the royal family performing Buddhist rites. Certain
Buddhist holy days have been recognized as national holidays. Among these are Visakha Puja,
the festival celebrating the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha, and the beginning and
end of “Buddhist Lent” (phansa)—a three-month period corresponding to the monsoon season,
during which both monks and laypeople give added attention to religious practices such as
meditation.

CONCLUSION
Daily life and social customs

Changing rural and urban lifestyles

Since the 1960s, more than four-fifths of both male and female villagers have left their
home communities to work for a period of months or years in urban areas. While many of these
migrants work in unskilled construction or service jobs, an increasing number have found work
requiring high skills. As a consequence of the rapid growth of the Thai economy, there has been
a marked expansion in the cities of both middle and working classes. While many in the working
class continue to retain strong ties to the rural communities from which they came, many others
now see themselves as primarily urban rather than rural people.
Urban life has also reshaped rural society. Government programs in the 1970s and ’80s brought
electricity to most villages in Thailand. This, along with economic growth
and rising incomes, has made it possible for most households to purchase televisions and,
increasingly, other electronic equipment. The arrival of television—and the urban-
based culture that it offers—has drawn rural audiences away from older local forms of
entertainment such as regional opera, even as rural opera of northeastern Thailand has in turn
been repackaged for urban audiences.
Rural as well as urban Thai would generally agree that their quality of life has improved
significantly, especially since the late 20th century. Most people live in better housing, while an
increasing number of homes have running water, even in rural areas. Villagers benefit from
much better health care than in the past, and in the urban areas the middle class has access to top-
notch facilities and professionals. The large increases in per capita income since the 1960s have
generated much more money for both urban and rural people to spend on luxury goods and
entertainment. This growth, however, has been accompanied by a notable decline in participation
in community life. In the cities, families often see each other only briefly in the morning and
evening, before and after long commutes to and from work and school. In the rural areas, family
members are often absent for months or years, working not only in urban Thailand but also
abroad in such places as the Middle East and Taiwan.
 Thailand: Age breakdownEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
From the mid-19th century to World War II, immigration, primarily from China, contributed
markedly to the growth of the population. In the postwar period immigration has been restricted,
and most of the refugees from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam who obtained asylum in Thailand
after the wars ended in those countries were not allowed to become permanent residents of
Thailand. Some of the refugees were resettled in other countries, and a small number were
repatriated to their own countries. Since the late 1980s hundreds of thousands of people
from Myanmar have entered Thailand as refugees, as illegal immigrants, or, in a small number of
cases, as legal guest workers. Although only a few of these people have been granted the right to
remain permanently in Thailand, many have lived in the country for years or even decades.
 RURAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

THAILAND (Report)

Submitted by: Chat P. Tumanguil

Submitted to: Prof. Rosalinda P. Callang