Showing 1 - 10 of 103
Reinvent Thailand to revive growth
Oped, Boonwara Sumano, Published on 11/02/2026
» In the 1990s, Thailand ranked second in Asean for state performance, behind only Singapore. Today, we trail several neighbours. This decline has unfolded gradually over three decades -- through repeated economic crises, institutional stagnation, and reforms that never quite went far enough. What is different today is that the cost of inaction has become far more dangerous.
Thin buyer guide
Oped, Postbag, Published on 11/02/2026
» Re: "Choosing the right air purifier for Thailand's rising air pollution", (Life, Feb 8).
Our tariff-era dollar, your problem
Oped, Qiyuan Xu, Published on 04/02/2026
» In 2025, the dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of major currencies, fell by roughly 9.4%. Over the same period, the United States' average effective tariff rate rose by around 14.4 percentage points, from 2.4% to 16.8%, according to the Yale Budget Lab. Taken together, these shifts imply that, in the import trade domain, the US experienced an effective exchange-rate depreciation of around 24%.
In defence of encryption for a digital future
Oped, Sally Wentworth, Published on 22/10/2025
» Encryption, the simple act of scrambling data so that it cannot be read by third parties, keeps us, our loved ones, and our communities safe by protecting everything from private messages to online-banking details and medical records. It is the foundation of trust in our digital society, as crucial for personal security as it is for national security.
SMEs need ecosystems, not donors
Oped, Chakorn Loetnithat, Yos Vajragupta & Tan Chaimadee, Published on 08/10/2025
» In today's fast-changing economy, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) matter more than in the past.
China's unbeatable new export is not a product
Oped, Jeffrey Wu, Published on 24/07/2025
» The Chinese "cannot be allowed to export their way back to prosperity", argues US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, who claims that China's economy is the "most unbalanced in history". Such remarks reflect the growing fear in Washington that China's overcapacity, subsidies, and dumping are distorting global trade.
Charm alone is not enough
News, Editorial, Published on 05/05/2025
» Thailand's tourism industry, long regarded as one of the kingdom's economic crown jewels, is showing signs of severe fatigue.
Trump tariffs sow divisions in Asean
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 02/05/2025
» President Donald Trump's unilateral imposition of tariffs across the United States' economic chessboard poses a critical test for Asean. As the regional organisation of Southeast Asia, Asean has weathered many geopolitical and geoeconomic storms in its 58-year existence, but no adversity like the Trump tariffs. Unless Asean reorganises and regroups, the ten-member body risks further divisions and increasing irrelevance.
A perilous era of absolute advantage
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 25/04/2025
» If a date had to be pinpointed, the post-Second World War international system came to an unmistakable end on April 2 -- the so-called "Liberation Day" -- when US President Donald Trump announced comprehensive "reciprocal" tariffs to a bewildered global audience. The blatantly protectionist move was equivalent to the United States' abrogation and abandonment of the rules-based international order that it ironically and instrumentally constructed and upheld over nearly eight decades. What comes now is a dangerous era of absolute advantage in global trade, investment, and finance, bent on unilateralism over multilateralism, competition over cooperation, nationalism over interdependence, and the singular quest to dominate and reshape the global pecking order under the rubric of making America "great again".