Photo Credit: The Royal Thai Government[1]

By: Yang Liu

Since being elected Prime Minister of Thailand, Ms. Yingluck has been the center of “Yingluck fever” which has spread beyond Thailand to other countries. Her beautiful, casual but groomed image not only earned her a considerable number of Yingluck fans, but is also widely considered to have helped during her campaign. As people question whether physical beauty is more important than sound policies, Ms. Yingluck has accomplished some achievements, especially in improving relationships with the neighboring  countries, during which her beauty more or less did work to some degree. Despite having taken office over two years ago, the Yingluck fever is still on, especially in China. For instance, on April 18th 2012, she even had an advertisement that occupied a whole page on People’s Daily, a Chinese newspaper and organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The advertisement also served as a way to attract Chinese foreign investment.

Due to Ms. Yingluck’s heritage, having been born in the Chiang Mai Province and into a wealthy family of Chinese descent, Ms. Yingluck has a great advantage when it comes to developing international cooperation with China, a country that strongly values consanguinity and family. Thus, during her two year administration, Ms. Yingluck personally received Chinese businessmen several times, viewing it as an opportunity to develop the economy of Thailand. Also, this past March, Ms. Yingluck received Chinese director Xu Zheng, whose movie Taijiong last year was not only a phenomenal success in China, and was considered to have greatly encouraged Chinese travel to Thailand.

However, despite such success in pushing the Thai economy, the Southeastern Asian country has been struggling with economic development since the beginning of 2013. According to Thailand Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), the economic growth of Thailand in the first half year was lower than expected. Therefore, last month at the 2013 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit meeting in Bali, Indonesia, Ms. Yingluck urged APEC members to work towards the Bogor Goals to ensure the free trade and free investment within APEC. This was interpreted as a sign of attracting foreign investment and exploring Thai export.

Having been a businesswoman before taking office, Ms. Yingluck is certainly aware of the significance of foreign investment and the marketplace. However, whether her personal character is strong enough to pull Thailand out of the economic quagmire it is in is still a questionable expectation. According to the NESDB, the slow economic growth is due mainly to the rising exchange rate of baht, through which Thailand’s economy suffers since more than sixty percent of its GDP is comprised of exported goods. Also, Thailand’s Finance Minister Kittirat Na Ranong stated that Thailand’s high interest policy is the source of the Baht exchange rate rise. Because of this, Ms. Yingluck might need to pay more attention to her domestic policies, instead of the foreign one.

Update: This blog was finished in November. The recent Thai convulsion has more or less shown that the domestic policies of Ms. Yingluck are not so effective as her foreign policies.

Yang Liu is a Master of International Affairs student at School of International Affairs, Penn State. With an economic undergraduate background, he is good at international economics and commercial diplomacy. Yang has a wide range of academic interests, and he is interested in several non-mainstream fields.