Thailand Accelerates Economic Transformation Toward High-Income Status

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Dr. Ekniti Nitithanprapas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, at the closing panel of the Bangkok Business Summit 2026.

BANGKOK, THAILAND — Thailand has reaffirmed its commitment to accelerating economic transformation toward high-income status through investment-driven growth, stronger private-sector participation, and structural reforms.

The commitment was highlighted at the closing of the Bangkok Business Summit 2026 on Monday (September 7, 2026), which brought together government officials, business leaders, and multilateral institutions to formulate concrete measures to address global economic challenges.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ekniti Nitithanprapas, said the government no longer wants public-private partnerships to serve merely as consultation forums. The Joint Public and Private Committee (JPCC) will be strengthened into an economic steering body tasked with overseeing structural reforms and ensuring their effective implementation.

“Thailand must achieve high-income status,” Ekniti said firmly.

He said the government would promote seven new growth engines by strengthening investment, trade, SMEs, regulatory streamlining, and human capital development. Fiscal and financial stability would remain the foundation for maintaining economic resilience.

Representatives of the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB)
share Thailand's strategic economic direction

Chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB), Payong Srivanich, said the transformation must be accompanied by the modernization of traditional industries and the development of future-oriented sectors. Thailand, he said, needs to move away from a low-cost labor-based economic model toward higher productivity driven by automation, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, smart electronics, and green industries.

Meanwhile, Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, World Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific, said the private sector must be positioned as a key engine of job creation and economic growth.

Thailand’s economic transformation is gaining further momentum as the country prepares to host the 2026 IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings in October. Thailand is also targeting OECD accession by 2028 and will assume the ASEAN Chairmanship within the next two years.

The summit underscored a clear policy direction: Thailand is moving beyond planning and into execution to build a more productive, competitive, and resilient economy while strengthening its position as a key economic anchor in ASEAN. (*/red).