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Government Mediation and Transformation of Thailand's National Innovation System

Patarapong Intarakumnerd is Senior Scientist, Science, Technology and Innovation Research Department, National Science & Technology Development Agency, Rama VI Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand. E-mail: patarapong{at}nstda.or.th.

This article focuses on how a major shift in government policies can transform the national innovation system (NIS) of a developing country. Thailand's used to be a typical developing country NIS. It was quite weak and fragmented. Major change took place when Thaksin Shinawatra became prime minister in 2001. New policies and practices, which can be group together as ‘Thaksinomics’, transformed not only the government sector, but also two other leading actors of the NIS: private firms and university. Even though it is too early to draw final conclusions of the effects of Thaksin policies on Thai NIS, it is true that it became stronger and more coherent. The experience of Thailand demonstrates that a national innovation system of a latecomer country can transform from a long-standing character of a weak, fragmented and slow-learning one to a stronger, coherent and more-active-learning one, if there is a significant change in the behaviour of a key actor that can cause positive effects in other actors.

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