BANGKOK: In late 2023, Thailand’s new government was on an international investment blitz.Then-Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin had framed himself as Thailand’s economic fixer, a leader with genuine business-world credentials that could turn around the country’s years of sluggish performance.The former property tycoon had become national leader after the election that year, heading a Pheu Thai-led coalition that promised to revive growth through headline-grabbing policies such as its digital wallet stimulus, a mass, one-time cash handout to 50 million people.And in the background officials were taking early steps to try and fundamentally fix Thailand’s economic systems and structures through a very different kind of project: a bid to enter the OECD.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation of mainly advanced economies that develops policy standards and advice on how countries can better run their economies, institutions and public services.By June 2024, Thailand had become an OECD candidate country and officially launched its accession process a few months later in October.Srettha would not see that day as leader; he was removed as prime minister by the courts for violating the constitution's ethical standards in August that year.But Thailand’s long journey to joining the elite economic grouping sometimes called the “rich countries' club" has carried on.The bid has passed through successive governments and has now become a priority agenda item under Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.In May, Thailand’s Cabinet approved the establishment of a national steering committee chaired by him to oversee its accession process.“When Thailand becomes an OECD member, people will see Thailand in new dimensions,” Anutin said at an event earlier this month.“No one will be able to point a finger at Thailand and say it is a dishonest country, a country without scrutiny, an undeveloped country or a country moving backwards.”
