Economical Challenges

In 1929, there was the world depression. The rice industry, the main sector of the economy, was badly hit. The price of rice fell by 2/3 during 1930-32. Retrenchment policies, tax increases and reduced salaries affected everyone. In 1997, Thailand was hit by one of its worst economic crisis in Thailand's history. The Southeast Asia economic crisis started in Thailand and slowly to the rest of Asia. The currency weakened, annual GDP dropped and the people suffered from this. However, the only part of Thailand's economy not affected by the crisis is its tourism. Since Thai currency have weakened a lot, foreigners find it cheaper to go to Thailand to shop, thus tourism rates reach new highs. The stock market made many people bankrupt during this period of time. The Thai economy is badly shaken by this crisis, fortunately, the worst of the crisis seemed to be over. The challenge the Thai government faced is to help the people regain their confidence and get the economy back on track again. This is definitely not easy as the Thailand is badly hit from the crisis. Thailand is still undergoing recovery and it is the responsibility of the Thai government to make sure everything is back to normal again. The challenges faced during the war was also very great. Rice and teak piled up at the ports as her market vanished. Manufactured goods and spare parts were in short supply. The conditions were made worst when Bangkok in October 1942. Thailand was also forced to provide huge loans to the Japanese under very unfavourable terms.

Social Challenges

Thailand do not have any social unrest caused by political factors as the king is well loved by the Thais, but they do have other social problems. The astonishing rate of Aids infections is scary, increasing by 500 new cases a day! This have indirectly caused the Thai economy to weaken as the health budgets increased. The government have been trying in vain to stop this, but Thailand has a huge sex industry, so its is very hard. This is one of the main social challenges faced. Another serious problem faced by the Thai government is child prostitution. For many years, children, whose parents are heavily in debt, are forced to be prostitutes. This child prostitutes are mainly girls, some are even boys. They are forced into prostitution before they reached their teens. This of course, also contributes to the rising Aids rate, the worse thing is that more younger people are infected with Aids now, due to child prostitution. The challenge that the Thai government face is that how are they going to stop children from being forced into prostitution by parents. The problem is, now more children are willing to be child prostitutes even if nobody is forcing them, in this way, they could earn money and buy things they want. This is partly caused by the rate of globalization. The Thai government would also have to educate the younger generation that this is a completely wrong thing to do, that, in fact is a great social challenge. For many years in Thailand's history, social problems have always been a challenge to the Thai government.

Political Challenges

The present king have acceded to the throne for nearly 54 years. It is often said that the independence and integrity of Thailand are assured by three unifying factors: the people's freedom-loving spirit, the Buddhist Religion and the Thai Throne. Under His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thailand is politically stable. One of the challenges happened when Thailand opened its borders. Fleeing immigrants came to Thailand and this created mix cultures in Thailand. Threats of communist insurgencies from Vietnam was also a challenge. Communist insurgencies are one of the biggest political challenge Thailand have to face. This threat of Communism attracted American support, massive American aid helped secure Thailand against communist threat and also propelled economic growth. Even today, that problem is still imminent to the present government. After the war, Thailand also faced the challenge of repairing ties with the Allies and getting into United Nations.