Thailand's Global Competitiveness

The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 has been issued (*).
On page 32:

Once a member of the top 30, Thailand (36th) drops for the second year
in a row. The global downturn added to Thailand?s severe political
turmoil and social unrest with grim consequences for the country?s
economy, which is expected to shrink between 3 and 4 percent in
2009?the first contraction since the Asian Financial Crisis of the
late 1990s.The government coalition is now faced with the double
challenge of jumpstarting the economy and restoring political
stability. The country?s competitiveness inevitably suffers from
protracted instability. Unsurprisingly, the quality of public
institutions continues to deteriorate. Ranked 63rd in this
category,Thailand has dropped 20 places over the past three years.
Insufficient protection of property rights (75th) and security (85th)
are of particular concern to the business community.With respect to
public health (78th), HIV/AIDS, which afflicts 1.4 percent of the
adult population; tuberculosis (142 cases per 100,000 population); and
malaria (400 cases per 100,000 population) are all major
concerns.Thailand?s technological readiness (63rd) is also lagging.

Although mobile telephony penetration is among the densest in the
world at 124 mobile subscriptions per 100 population, the use of the
Internet (21 users per 100) and computers (6 per 100) remains scarce.
Looking at the most positive aspects of Thailand?s performance, the
macroeconomic situation (22nd) improved slightly between 2007 and
2008.The efficiency of the labor market (25th) constitutes another
strength. Finally, the sheer size of its domestic (22nd) and foreign
(18th) markets is a source of economies of scale.

(*) http://www.ft.com/cms/6a14d298-9c67-11de-ab58-00144feabdc0.pdf
_
Thanks to the Bangkokpundit.blogspot, once again...
A pleasant change from the cra*py smell sent by the garbage of present
sct!!!!

:-(
AntiNazi Mort
"We already paid 25 baht to read that article in the Bangkok Post. You
don;t need to cut and past it here yet again just to proove that you
can read." - Gross SS in Bangkok, aka 'the brown turd in the dock', 11
Mar 2008
.