2023 POLICY ROADMAP

The Thai economy grew by 2% in the first half of 2023, led by an increasing influx of tourism after the difficult pandemic years. Inflation was very low (0.4%), despite increasing energy and food prices. Potential dangers on the horizon include a slowdown in manufacturing and exports, and an expected increase in the minimum wage in 2024.

Thailand has been making sweeping changes in its tax regulations and practices as international tax principles are incorporated into its domestic regulations.

2023 Framework Conditions Review1

Thailand last participated in the GEM National Expert Survey (NES) in 2019, so only limited comparisons
will be made with those results. Of course, the world has changed over that period, including the global COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and shifts in energy prices.

In 2019, the quality of the overall entrepreneurial environment in Thailand, as assessed by its own national experts and summed up in the National Entrepreneurial Context Index (NECI), was scored at 5.0, or just sufficient. By 2023 that NECI score had fallen to 4.3, much less than sufficient. One consequence is that Thailand moved down the GEM NECI rankings, from 18th of 51 economies in 2019, to 34th of 49 economies in 2023. In the period between these years, experts’ scores for 12 of 13 Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions (EFCs) had fallen, with the largest declines being for the two finance EFCs and for Ease of Entry: Burdens and Regulations. In 2023, Thailand sat firmly in the middle of the Level C EFC assessments, with six of its EFCs rated above the group average and five below.

Thailand scored a bit better in the expert assessments of social support for women entrepreneurs, and for women entrepreneurs’ access to resources compared to men, scoring 4.0 for the former (18th of 49) and 4.9 for the latter (30th).

2023 Entrepreneurial Activity Review

Before 2023, there had been no recent participation by Thailand in the GEM Adult Population Survey (APS), so no comparisons over time can be made. In 2023, two in five adults in Thailand reported that their household income had declined in that year, slightly less than average for a Level C economy.

Entrepreneurial networks were fairly low-profile in Thailand, with just one in five adults knowing someone who had recently started a business, the lowest level of the 45 GEM economies. However, three in four adults considered they had the skills and experience to start a business themselves, and a similar proportion saw good opportunities to start a business locally (third highest in GEM behind Saudi Arabia and India). So there is no lack of entrepreneurial confidence in Thailand, confirmed by the three in 10 adults who expect to start a business in the next three years. That proportion could be higher, but nearly half of those seeing good opportunities would not start a business for fear it might fail.

Nearly one in four adults were already starting or running a new business in Thailand, with slightly more women doing so than men. Established Business Ownership was relatively high, at nearly 12%, but had declined compared to pre-pandemic levels of 20% in 2018. Both the percentages of adults starting new businesses and the percentage owning established businesses put Thailand in the top 10
for entrepreneurial activity of the 46 economies participating in the 2023 GEM APS.

Four out of five new entrepreneurs agreed with the motivations to earn a living because jobs are scarce and to build great wealth or very high income. Just one in five had customers outside Thailand, while seven in 10 expected to use more digital technologies in the next six months to sell their products. Job expectations were low, with just one in 10 of those starting or running a new business expecting to employ at least another six people over the next five years.

1 A brief description of the GEM approach is given in the footnote on p. 107.