Thailand
State and economy
Geography
•Thailand is located in Southeast Asia, from the west it is washed by the Andaman Sea, from the east by the Gulf of Thailand of the South China Sea.
•The territory of Thailand is stretched from north to south.
•The northern part of the country is occupied by the Thai mountains.
State structure
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Administrative division
•Thailand is divided into five main regions: Central, Eastern, Northern, Northeastern and Southern Thailand.
•Thailand is subdivided into 77 provinces
•In 2013, the capital of Bangkok received the status of an independent 77th province.
Population
•The population of Thailand mainly consists of ethnic Thais (~ 80%).
•There is also a large community of ethnic Chinese (~10%) to which the former Prime Minister of Thailand belongs.
•95% of the inhabitants of Thailand profess Buddhism, 4% are Muslims, Christians - about 1%.
•The proportion of urban population in Thailand is 45%.
Economy
Advantages:
•successfully became a stable market economy
•Low inflation (3.2%)
•Relatively high economic growth and low public debt
•Relatively cheap and well-educated, in comparison with the developed countries of Asia and Europe, the labor force.
Disadvantages:
•High level of corruption
•Slowly advancing market reforms
•Small investment
•A growing shortage of able- bodied labor force and an increase in the number of pensioners, due to low birth rates and high emigration of the population to richer countries.
•Thailand's economy is heavily dependent on exports
•The main export commodities are: machinery, equipment and electronics
Agriculture
•Thailand is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of rice: the country annually supplies up to 9 million tons of rice to the world market.
•In addition to rice, corn, sweet potatoes, pineapples, coconuts, sugar cane, bananas, soybeans, and palm oil are also produced. The country receives large incomes from the export of durian.
•Agriculture employs about half of the population and cultivates more than 40% of Thailand's territory.
Tourism
•Tourism brings significant income to the Thai economy and accounts for approximately 16-18% of the country's GDP. At the same time, a significant part falls on domestic tourism.
•Over 38 million foreigners visited Thailand in 2018.