Thailand

1
Thailand

• An IT Profile

2
The People

• About 65 million people, median age 30 yrs.(of
  71)
• 93 are Buddhists (75 Thai)
• 4 are Muslims (mostly in south)
• Thais are very friendly to foreigners and are
  extremely tolerant.
• Bangkoks reputation as a sex tourism magnet is
  undeserved and an anomaly most Thais are more
  puritanical than not.

One common saying among foreigners is that the
Thais have 20 different smiles, but only one of
them is friendly!
3
Ethnic Groups

• About 4/5 of the population is ethnic Thai
• About 1/5 of the population is ethnic Chinese,
  but there is a great deal of intermarriage with
  the Thai population.
• Muslim Malays live mostly in the southern
  peninsula
• There are numerous rural and mostly poor hill
  tribes in the north.
• Europeans are common sights as tourists and
  retirees.

4
Languages

• Everyone speaks Thai literacy is 96. The Thais
  emphasize education.
• English is a required course now in schools. In
  Bangkok almost everyone speaks some English many
  are studying it in schools. Historically,
  English is the third language of the political
  elite
• Thai has its own alphabet consisting of about 80
  characters, some taken from Sanskrit
• Cantonese is spoken by much of the business
  community

5
Geography

• Thailand is in SE Asia enveloped by Myanmar
  (Burma), Laos and Cambodia.
• Its a tropical country, but the north is hilly
  and can be cool in winter.
• Bangkok is the capital and major city (about 10
  million people). There are few other large
  cities other than Chiang Mai (200,000).
• The northeastern corner is part of the Golden
  Triangle made famous by drug smuggling.

6
Geography
Asia
Tropic of Cancer
South China Sea
Equator
CIA Factbook
7
History

• Ethnic Thais migrated from China about 3500 years
  ago.
• Thailand has had a central government for 900
  years, centered in Bangkok for only 100 years.
• Britain is widely admired in Thailand, especially
  the British Royal Family.

8
History

• Thailand was never colonized it maintained
  equality with France, Britain.Over the centuries,
  Thailand has fought wars extensively with
  Cambodia and Burma and is effectively still at
  war with Myanmar over the northern border and
  drug smuggling. Thais are very nationalistic
  despite a history of internal conflict, they are
  very supportive of their own country.

9
Government

• Thailand has experimented with democracy. It is
  officially a constitutional monarchy. The King
  is widely admired and deserves it. He is a
  symbol of national unity as well as an
  accomplished composer.
• In the most recent election (only the second in
  the latest series of democratic elections), amid
  many proven cases of fraud, Mr. Thaksin, a
  computer and communications mogul, was elected
  for the ThaiRakThai (Thais love Thais) party.
  Coindicentally, Thaksin is the name of the first
  recorded Thai king who ruled the unified country.

10
Politics

• Thais love politics and practice it physically
  (Kick boxing is a Thai sport)
• Current leading party is a coalition of
  anti-former-coalition parties
• King is rallying point, stabilizing what is
  otherwise in Asia a very unstable undertaking
  (I.e., government).
• There is corruption everywhere, however.

11
Economy

• Thailand is one of the Asian tigers.
• Unemployment is 2 ½ employees in agriculture
• The economy relies on exports of food,
  electronics
• Tourism is very important.
• Market is free, but controlled by a small
  number of families
• GDP/capita is about 7400 Gini is 41.4
• Trading partners are US, Japan, Singapore, Hong
  Kong, China

12
Business and Culture

• Thailand is a hierarchical society
• A major cultural value is avoiding conflict
• Another is not losing face
• Thais do not normally care much for western style
  business values or ethics
• But they are highly ethical nonetheless
• Thailand is not a western country it has its own
  unique culture!

13
IT

• Local industry is into assembling.
• Thai alphabet is different from Latin one,
  necessitating local application development
• Thailand has well developed electronics
  industries
• There are many good universities, several of
  world class quality.
• Thais are all learning English and value learning
  in general

14
IT

• Computers and transistors are a major export
• Infrastructure for e-commerce is available and
  growing (banking, credit cards, checking, laws
  for private property), 65,000 mi of paved roads
• Most IT is associated with Bangkok
• There are at least 23 million phones, with
  wireless growing at a high rate. The Prime
  Minister is the owner of media and communication
  companies
• Widespread corruption public and private is a
  hinderance to business.
• 100,000 Internet hosts, 5 million users.

15
Locating IT Business

• Outsourcing Not a good idea availability of
  talent is not high except in Bangkok
• Production Could be useful for production of
  software for Thailand alone, but language
  problems abound
• Marketing Requires Thai-language products which
  are not easily sold outside Thailand

16
Links and Predictions
There is reason to believe that Thailand will
always harbor a small indigenous software
development industry, but in the main, the basic
industry will be assembly of components. The
country doesnt have the force of unity that
Singapore has for national planning or the wealth
of human resources that India has nor the fortune
of location of Ireland.
For more information on Thailand, consult these
links http//www1.thaimain.org/en/introduction.ht
ml http//www.thaiembdc.org/index.htm http//www.t
hailand.com/index.php
17
Some Thai Links

• Shopping
• Business News (in Thai, of course)
• Who knows?
• A Great Hotel in Bangkok (Great buffet)
• A Wonderful Hotel in Bangkok (Great location)