Abstract
This paper discusses Thailand's long-term growth experiences and future challenges for driving growth. Good growth performance between 1960 and 1985, and the boom between 1985 and 1995, led to an aspiration for Thailand to become an advanced economy by 2020. This was completely derailed by the 1997 financial crisis. It took eight years for the economic overhang from the crisis to fully dissipate. Thailand then entered a period of political crisis, which has continued to the present. After 1997, the growth drivers changed substantially, with exports becoming the main growth driver and investment collapsing. Growth has been slower than before the financial crisis and Thailand is now one of the worse growth performers in ASEAN. Export is now less effective in driving growth and there is a need to revive investment as the future growth driver. There remain many challenges to Thailand's long-term growth. The paper suggests a number of policy directions to make investment effective as the future growth driver.