Country Overview
Thailand has made significant social and economic developments and is working on transitioning to an innovative and sustainable economy through its Thailand 4.0 economic plan. Thailand has implemented processes that support the creation of businesses, helping to foster competition and investment. Thailand has focused on investing in infrastructure and could focus on boosting foreign investment to reduce financing costs for infrastructure projects.
See Full Overview Data
GDP per capita
7,232 USD
Population
70.0 million persons
Infrastructure quality
67.8 (0-100 best)
Infrastructure investment
3.1% of GDP
Infrastructure gap
0.7% of GDP

Driver Overview

This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).

Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Rank

Score /100

Best practice

50
7
48.7
Aspiring
27
3
63.8
Top performer
20
18
82.0
Top performer
26
2
88.9
Top performer
36
13
78.3
Contender
28
32
40.2
Top performer
34
1
40.4
Contender
8
-
72.3
Global Leader

Metric Overview

Strengths

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank, the cost of starting a business in Thailand is equal to 3% of income per capita, which is below the average of 11% for Upper Middle Income Countries, easing the entry of new firms.

Financial stability

Thailand is the second most financially stable country among Upper Middle Income Countries. Thailand’s financial sector is well positioned to withstand wider economic shocks. However, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is a concern.

Registering property

It takes nine days to register a property in Thailand, less than half the Upper Middle Income Countries’ average of 21.5 days. As infrastructure projects often involve property rights, the shorter the time to register properties, the less costly and risky the project.

Cost to start a business

According to the World Bank, the cost of starting a business in Thailand is equal to 3% of income per capita, which is below the average of 11% for Upper Middle Income Countries, easing the entry of new firms.

Financial stability

Thailand is the second most financially stable country among Upper Middle Income Countries. Thailand’s financial sector is well positioned to withstand wider economic shocks. However, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is a concern.

Registering property

It takes nine days to register a property in Thailand, less than half the Upper Middle Income Countries’ average of 21.5 days. As infrastructure projects often involve property rights, the shorter the time to register properties, the less costly and risky the project.

Top Performing Metrics

Top Performing Metrics

This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100. 

Upper-middle income country average

Financial markets:
Financial stability

Opportunities to Grow

Post-completion reviews

Thailand does not undertake post-completion reviews infrastructure projects. The implementation of post-completion reviews could help determine whether projects have achieved their objectives efficiently, and identify areas for improvement.

Long term GDP growth trend

Thailand’s long-term GDP growth trend is 3.3%, slightly higher than the Upper Middle Income Countries average of 3.1%. Combined with the uncertain impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this low growth trend may hamper Thailand’s ability to borrow and build more infrastructure.

Value of close infrastructure deals with foreign equity sponsorship

Thailand has a low value of closed infrastructure deals with foreign equity sponsorship, at only 0.03%. A low value may reflect a limited scale of infrastructure investment opportunities available for foreign investors and may increase financing costs as a result of lower levels of competition.

Post-completion reviews

Thailand does not undertake post-completion reviews infrastructure projects. The implementation of post-completion reviews could help determine whether projects have achieved their objectives efficiently, and identify areas for improvement.

Long term GDP growth trend

Thailand’s long-term GDP growth trend is 3.3%, slightly higher than the Upper Middle Income Countries average of 3.1%. Combined with the uncertain impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this low growth trend may hamper Thailand’s ability to borrow and build more infrastructure.

Value of close infrastructure deals with foreign equity sponsorship

Thailand has a low value of closed infrastructure deals with foreign equity sponsorship, at only 0.03%. A low value may reflect a limited scale of infrastructure investment opportunities available for foreign investors and may increase financing costs as a result of lower levels of competition.

Metrics to Improve

Metrics to Improve

This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.

For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.

Upper-middle income country average

Funding capacity:
Long term GDP growth trend

Detailed Data

This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017. 

Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset. 

Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.

Governance Regulatory Permits Planning Procurement Activity Funding Financial
Driver
Rank
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader
- No ranking change Ranking increase Ranking decrease

Metric

Thailand

Upper-middle Income Countries Average

Source Link

28.2%

Recovery rate

The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.

70.1 (+2.4)
37.7

20.7%

Rule of law

World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.

50.5 (+0.6)
45.1

18.1%

Post-completion reviews

Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.

No
-

15.1%

Shareholder governance

Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).

56.7 (+10.0)
40.2

12.8%

Political stability and absence of violence score

Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

37.8 (+4.3)
46.1

5%

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.

Yes
-

Thailand

Upper-middle Income Countries Average

70.1 (+2.4)
37.7
50.5 (+0.6)
45.1
No
-
56.7 (+10.0)
40.2
37.8 (+4.3)
46.1
Yes
-

Country Overview Data

Thailand has made significant social and economic developments and is working on transitioning to an innovative and sustainable economy through its Thailand 4.0 economic plan. Thailand has implemented processes that support the creation of businesses, helping to foster competition and investment. Thailand has focused on investing in infrastructure and could focus on boosting foreign investment to reduce financing costs for infrastructure projects.
GDP per capita

7,232 USD

Population

70.0 million persons

Infrastructure quality

67.8 (0-100 best)

Infrastructure investment

3.1% of GDP

Infrastructure gap

0.7% of GDP

GDP growth rate

2.9%

GDP per capita growth rate

4.6%

Gini coefficient

36.5 (0-100 worst)

Gross Government Debt

42.0% of GDP

Inflation rate

0.9%

Summary credit rating

65.0 (0-100 best)

Unemployment rate

0.7%

Urbanisation ratio

50.0% of total population

Road connectivity

80.0 (0-100 best)

Quality of road infrastructure

4.4 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of train services

2.8 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of air transport services

5.0 (1-7 best)

Efficiency of seaport services

4.1 (1-7 best)

Electricity access

100.0% of population

Electricity supply quality

5.8% of output lost

Exposure to unsafe drinking water

52.7% of population

Reliability of water supply

5.2 (1-7 best)

Mobile-broadband subscriptions

104.7 per 100 population

Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions

13.2 per 100 population