Thailand 1999

In 1999, Thailand had a population of approximately 60 million people. The economy was heavily based on exports of agricultural products and manufactured goods, with tourism also playing a significant role. Foreign relations at the time were mainly focused on Southeast Asian countries and the United States. Politically, Thailand was a constitutional monarchy under the leadership of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. The country was divided into 76 provinces, each with their own elected governor and local assembly. In 1999, Thailand held its first general election in eight years which saw the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party win an overwhelming majority of seats in the lower house of parliament. Despite this victory for TRT, Thailand still had strong institutions such as an independent judiciary and media which helped to protect freedom of speech and expression. See ethnicityology for Thailand in the year of 2018.

Yearbook 1999

Thailand 1999

Thailand. Efforts to get Thailand out of its economic crisis began to produce results. Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Thailand. Two stimulus packages totaling almost seven billion dollars were intended to clean up the property market and create jobs in the countryside. The latter package included tax cuts for small businesses and low-income earners, lower energy taxes and temporarily reduced VAT. While the measure contributed to raising the budget deficit to 6% of GDP, it was supported World Bank.

  • Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of THA which stands for Thailand and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.

Map of Thailand Bangkok in English

A special bankruptcy court was set up in an attempt to recover the huge sums of outstanding loans that slowed the economic recovery. These so-called bad loans represented more than 45% of the total loan amount.

In September, the government said it was expecting growth of up to 4% in 1999 and that therefore it was not necessary to utilize the entire $ 17 billion credit granted by the International Monetary Fund in 1997. About three billion remained to be withdrawn.

In July, the Social Action Party, Kij Sangkhom, left the coalition government, weakening government support in parliament by 20 votes.

Economic miracle

Thailand’s economy is now growing even stronger, reaching 89 percent in annual growth of 10.5%. At the same time, both the EC and the US made a difference. In the first case, Thailand criticized the extensive Community subsidies for agricultural products competing with Thai on the world market. Ifht. The United States was conflicted that Thailand would not accept the North American Intellectual Property Guidelines. This was particularly the case with trade in programs.

The Chatichai government concentrated mainly on foreign policy and did not tackle the domestic policy problems that the severe absolute poverty experienced by most of the population or the increasing destruction of the environment. The increasingly rapid deforestation in 89 led to floods that assumed catastrophic dimensions due to the importance of the forest for regulating the humidity and destruction of the trees along the rivers. The government had to ban further deforestation to prevent further damage. The government, in cooperation with the World Bank, encouraged extensive planting of eucalyptus trees, but this was counteracted by the poor peasants who regarded the new commercial forests as a serious competition for their traditional municipal forests.

In March 91, the military, led by General Sunthorn Kongsompong, conducted a new coup, and presented a draft new constitution to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. This approved the draft, defended the military coup with “the rising corruption” in the civilian government, and agreed with the military in printing new elections. As an indirect consequence of the military coup, peace talks in Cambodia were more or less stalled as the country’s government condemned renewed Thai support for Cambodia’s armed opposition. Through 91, Thailand was subject to the National Peace Conservation Council (NPKC) – a military body led by General Sunthorn. In December, the king proposed a new constitution, which required elections within 120 days to replace the NPKC board. Still, the military reserved the right to appoint 270 UF of 360 senators, giving it full control of the new government.

In the March 22 election, the opposition got most of the votes. There were 15 parties with 2,740 candidates and out of the country’s 57 million inhabitants, 32 were eligible. In early April, General Suchinda Kraprayoon was inaugurated as Prime Minister. He had been chief of staff until then and his government rested on a small coalition of 5 pro-military parties. Out of his 49 ministers, 11 were accused of financial fraud under the Chatichai government.

The following week, 50,000 people took part in a demonstration called by 4 opposition parties demanding the resignation of the government. At the same time, opposition leader Chamlong Srimuang and 42 other opposition politicians launched a hunger strike. In late May, the government-hostile demonstrations ended in a massacre of hundreds of killed and wounded. The military shot directly into the crowd gathered at the Democracy Monument in the middle of Bangkok. The demonstrations continued until King Bhumibol surprisingly appeared on TV and called for national reconciliation. At the same time, Suchinda gave his support for a revision of the Constitution that would make it necessary for the Prime Minister to be a member of Parliament. Such a change would itself be disqualified as prime minister with this change. Furthermore, Srimuang was released, and amnesty was given to the many who had been arrested during the street fighting. While there was a curfew in Bangkok, parliament initiated the debate over the constitutional amendment, and the king appointed General Prem Tinsulanonda to oversee this process.

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