Kriengsak Chareonwongsak Thailand’s relationship

Restoring Thai-Burma relations will bring advantages to both parties. Thailand’s relationship with Burma has become increasingly strained in recent times. Tensions between the two nations have increased mostly because of security issues such as amphetamines smuggled into Thailand, illegal Burmese workers, and Burmese minorities camped along the 2,400 kilometers of shared borderline. Poor relations with Burma have resulted in a number of Thai civilian deaths, damage to cities and towns within reach of Burma’s munitions, and other significant losses.

However, border trade worth about 10 billion baht per year would be lost if relations between the two were not restored. When Burma closed the Ta Kee Lek border crossing, over the last 4 months (March-June 2001) it resulted in a loss of more than 2,000 million Baht in revenue and was the cause of many business owners, in Thailand’s adjoining Mae Sai District, incurring huge financial losses. Similarly, closure of other border crossings would result in the loss of valuable tourism income to the merchants in those other areas.

Other industries have likewise been affected also. For example, the fishing industry has been severely affected by the withdrawal, for an indeterminable period of time, of international fishing concessions given to Thai fishing boats. Instead, the Burmese government welcomes Taiwanese, South Korean and Chinese fishing boats into its territorial waters. Consumer product industries are also affected and closure of border crossings cuts off Burma’s access to goods available in Thailand. As a result, Burma is looking increasingly to China, Singapore, India, and Japan for the consumer goods they used to buy from Thailand. This is despite the fact that when relations between the nations were normal, Thailand was a favored trading partner because trade with Thailand put the least amount of strain on Burma’s deficient transportation infrastructure.

Thailand will suffer long-term disadvantage from a continuing poor relationship with Burma. In the past, Burma supplied cheap raw materials and labor supplies to Thailand. If Burma’s internal transportation infrastructures were improved Thailand could use Burma as an industry base for exporting goods to China, India and other parts of the South Asian region. However, while Thailand pays scant attention to Burma, other nations such as Japan, Australia, and Singapore have increased their investments in the country.
Although the Thai government has tried to improve relations with Burma, conflicts have only seemed to increase a fact that could result in long-term drawbacks for both sides.

Burma as a strategic economic partner

Professor Dr Kriengsak Chareonwongsak
Executive Director, Institute of Future Studies for Development (IFD)
 kriengsak@kriengsak.com, http://www.ifd.or.th