The per-capita GDP forcast for the ASEAN countries in Dollars

[ThaiSiamese]

It's possible but it would be hard because indonesian's population is much higher than ours. Now I only hope that our GDP per capita will be as high as those developed western european countries and japan one day...

[mbokudake]

Originally Posted by Narongchai_thi

Could thailand ever surpass Indonesia in term of GDP PPP? >>>>>>>> we surpass Indonesia already. (gdp per capita ppp)

I mean, not per capita term, but the gross one. (Ten's mentioned nothing about per capita.)

[Narongchai_thi]

Originally Posted by mbokudake

I mean, not per capita term, but the gross one. (Ten's mentioned nothing about per capita.)

I see krub.

[Skyprince]

Abit off-topic but probably related.

I'm a frequent traveller to Thailand and love Thailand like hell; I found that general infrastructure of Thailand ( roads, highways, etc. ) is almost the same level to that of Malaysia. Sometimes it surprised me that most rural provinces of Thailand are served by many 4-lane highways while the main trunk road of several Malaysian states like Kelantan and Terengganu are still 2-lane ! And I found cities, towns, and bathroom facility in Thailand are abit cleaner than Malaysian side.

But 1 big thing that divides Thailand and Malaysia is housing. I found average homes in Malaysia are alot bigger, fancier, well-designed and are in much better shape than average homes in Thailand.

Not to make a Country vs. Country comparison, but just to tell my observation

[Narongchai_thi]

Originally Posted by Skyprince

Abit off-topic but probably related.

I'm a frequent traveller to Thailand and love Thailand like hell; I found that general infrastructure of Thailand ( roads, highways, etc. ) is almost the same level to that of Malaysia. Sometimes it surprised me that most rural provinces of Thailand are served by many 4-lane highways while the main trunk road of several Malaysian states like Kelantan and Terengganu are still 2-lane ! And I found cities, towns, and bathroom facility in Thailand are abit cleaner than Malaysian side.

But 1 big thing that divides Thailand and Malaysia is housing. I found average homes in Malaysia are alot bigger, fancier, well-designed and are in much better shape than average homes in Thailand.

Not to make a Country vs. Country comparison, but just to tell my observation

Umm really ??? I heard from someone that the road system in Malaysia is 10 years ahead of Thailand's.

[atom]

It is true that Skyprince stated, our road systems are in the same level with more standard quality of paved roads than in Malaysia, but still less expressways (our intercity motorways still in the beginning)

[avcomth]

Originally Posted by Skyprince

Abit off-topic but probably related.

I'm a frequent traveller to Thailand and love Thailand like hell; I found that general infrastructure of Thailand ( roads, highways, etc. ) is almost the same level to that of Malaysia. Sometimes it surprised me that most rural provinces of Thailand are served by many 4-lane highways while the main trunk road of several Malaysian states like Kelantan and Terengganu are still 2-lane ! And I found cities, towns, and bathroom facility in Thailand are abit cleaner than Malaysian side.

But 1 big thing that divides Thailand and Malaysia is housing. I found average homes in Malaysia are alot bigger, fancier, well-designed and are in much better shape than average homes in Thailand.

Not to make a Country vs. Country comparison, but just to tell my observation

Your observation is accurate, very accurate!! This is due to the fact that Thailand is good at building and expanding roads, bridges, ports, industrial estates, airports etc. These are often described here as "Megaprojects" We like to build new, wider roads even though we sometimes don't needed them that much like the 14 lanes road from Bangkok to Salaya and Nakhonpathom area--this is because a lot of these projects have direct interest links with the politicians (and gov. officials) who proposed them. It seems that we spent a lot of money into the large infrastructures and not enough investment into individual households. Again, this is due to the economic disparity between the rich and the poor. If our gov. spend less on megaprojects, and more on helping the poor to send their kids to school and have better jobs, then you wouldn't see so much contrast in Thailand as described.

[Skyprince]

Originally Posted by Narongchai_thi

Umm really ??? I heard from someone that the road system in Malaysia is 10 years ahead of Thailand's.

Originally Posted by atom

It is true that Skyprince stated, our road systems are in the same level with more standard quality of paved roads than in Malaysia, but still less expressways (our intercity motorways still in the beginning)

Well, as avcomth perfectly put it , both Thailand and Malaysia have similar level of infrastructure ; but in Malaysia more wealth is pumped into individual household than in Thailand.

It was extremely shocking for me to see a contrast between low individual wealth ( relatively poor housing, less material possession ) with those marvellous First-world infrastructure of Thailand ( roads & highways in Thailand are better than most European countries which I visited )

Talking about roads.... I think street signs in Malaysia are alot better and fancier; while Malaysian cities like KL and Penang have better roads than say, Bangkok or Chiangmai, I found that roads in rural Thailand are more developed & more extensive than in rural Malaysia. So overall, road infrastructure is the same level for both.

[atom]

Sadly, but true about housing condition in the country. Many real estate regulations still out of date and sometime can not use in reality which related to corruption and cutting construction costs for developers and house owners.

[chrislarsson]

Originally Posted by atom

Sadly, but true about housing condition in the country. Many real estate regulations still out of date and sometime can not use in reality which related to corruption and cutting construction costs for developers and house owners.

I think there is a culture in Thailand of always going out, rather than inviting people to your home. This is probably causing people to give less attention to their home.

I also quite often see people driving a car that must have been more expensive than the home they live in. This would never happen in Europe. I think a car is quite often used to "show off", rather than just being a vehicle bringing you from point A to B.

[Narongchai_thi]

Originally Posted by Skyprince

Well, as avcomth perfectly put it , both Thailand and Malaysia have similar level of infrastructure ; but in Malaysia more wealth is pumped into individual household than in Thailand.

It was extremely shocking for me to see a contrast between low individual wealth ( relatively poor housing, less material possession ) with those marvellous First-world infrastructure of Thailand ( roads & highways in Thailand are better than most European countries which I visited )

Talking about roads.... I think street signs in Malaysia are alot better and fancier; while Malaysian cities like KL and Penang have better roads than say, Bangkok or Chiangmai, I found that roads in rural Thailand are more developed & more extensive than in rural Malaysia. So overall, road infrastructure is the same level for both.

NOw, I understand your post quite well. In your first one, you are trying to tell me that Thailand does not pay attention much to human capital development in the same par as Malaysia. >>>>>>>> Even you said that you do not want to make country vs country comparison. >>>>>>>>> But now I understand your objective. This is to say that Malaysia is more peaceful than Thailand, right ?
Malaysia >>>>>>> less corruption & people have more money
Thailand >>>>>>> more corruption & people are still poor.


Don't forget Thailand per capita GDP is just 1/2 of Malaysia. I think when Thailand have the same money as Malaysia, Thai people can have enough money to expand their house and make it fancier. Are you satisfied with that ?


YOu just want to say that Malaysia is more peaceful than Thailand, but you know that it's not nice. That's why you indirectly expressed your attitude by talking about bigger and fancier housings in Malaysia. Then, when a Thai people tried to summarized one thing that is the same as your opinion (More corruption in Thailand and a big gap between the rich and the poor), you just come back and say "I agree with you". Actually, I do not like this kind of behaviours. sorry for any inconveniences.

[George W. Bush]

Originally Posted by Narongchai_thi

List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita
[...]
83 Peru 8,580
[...]
86 Thailand 8,225

I lived a couple of years in Peru in the 80es and it is VERY hard to believe that it could be economically ahead of Thailand these days.
The capital Lima certainly can't compete with Bangkok metro area in economic terms. And I doubt very much that the economic development of the Peruvian hinterland (which was mostly dirt-poor and devoid of significant infrastructure in the 80es) could have made up for this difference in the meantime.
Don't take these rankings too seriously.

[ThaiSiamese]

Originally Posted by Narongchai_thi

NOw, I understand your post quite well. In your first one, you are trying to tell me that Thailand does not pay attention much to human capital development in the same par as Malaysia. >>>>>>>> Even you said that you do not want to make country vs country comparison. >>>>>>>>> But now I understand your objective. This is to say that Malaysia is more peaceful than Thailand, right ?
Malaysia >>>>>>> less corruption & people have more money
Thailand >>>>>>> more corruption & people are still poor.


Don't forget Thailand per capita GDP is just 1/2 of Malaysia. I think when Thailand have the same money as Malaysia, Thai people can have enough money to expand their house and make it fancier. Are you satisfied with that ?


YOu just want to say that Malaysia is more peaceful than Thailand, but you know that it's not nice. That's why you indirectly expressed your attitude by talking about bigger and fancier housings in Malaysia. Then, when a Thai people tried to summarized one thing that is the same as your opinion (More corruption in Thailand and a big gap between the rich and the poor), you just come back and say "I agree with you". Actually, I do not like this kind of behaviours. sorry for any inconveniences.

Take it easy. I don't think he's trying to say that Malaysia is better than Thailand. He was just pointing out some differences between his country and ours. And I agree with most of the things that he said. Chrislarsson and avcomth also made some interesting points about thai politics and culture. I think if we really want our country to become developed, we first need to face the reality and try to find the way to improve it.

[FutureCityPlanner]

Just go to the boarder between Malaysia and Thailand and you can see the difference between the infrastructure of both countries right away. Everything seems so clean and ordered over there and even the electricity posts are of higher quality or they are underground. And just compare the immigration check points, in Malaysia they use high tech IBM PC's and our immigration is still stuck in the stone age. But I have only travelled on the highway, so I can't say anything about the rural areas. I just believe that Malaysia is way ahead of us in terms of Town and Regional Planning, which might have something to do with the British influence. Just look at how many houses they build to accomodate the population in 10 to even 20 years time. I hope Thailand will one day manage to accomplish something like that.

Yes we might have loads of roads and 4 lane highways, but they are built without thinking how they might bring benefit in the future and are utterly inefficient.

[Narongchai_thi]

Originally Posted by ThaiSiamese

Take it easy. I don't think he's trying to say that Malaysia is better than Thailand. He was just pointing out some differences between his country and ours. And I agree with most of the things that he said. Chrislarsson and avcomth also made some interesting points about thai politics and culture. I think if we really want our country to become developed, we first need to face the reality and try to find the way to improve it.

I think most Thai people know these problems well, and agree with him. However, I doubt that he mike have something in his mind to look down on Thailand. Is that nice to say something like this with foreign people ? For example, I've never said anything in Laos with my Laotian friend, I've never compared this in Thailand with that in Laos.

[Skyprince]

Lol okay, I think I already " looked down" on Malaysia by saying Malaysian cities and bathrooms are dirtier than Thailand ( serious ). And income/infrastructural gap between urban and rural is more stark in Malaysia than in Thailand. In Malaysian forum , I opened a thread to describe how much I love Thailand while doing lots of bashing and criticism on Malaysia ( especially when it comes to tourism and cleanliness ) that made some forumers gone mad.

[Narongchai_thi]

Originally Posted by Skyprince

Lol okay, I think I already " looked down" on Malaysia by saying Malaysian cities and bathrooms are dirtier than Thailand ( serious ). And income/infrastructural gap between urban and rural is more stark in Malaysia than in Thailand. In Malaysian forum , I opened a thread to describe how much I love Thailand while doing lots of bashing and criticism on Malaysia ( especially when it comes to tourism and cleanliness ) that made some forumers gone mad.

I really don't mind what you just said about your country.

[Powerstone]

Originally Posted by Narongchai_thi

I really don't mind what you just said about your country.

but what Skyprice told is true, isn't it? I agree with him. People who living outside of Bangkok is like living in another country or another world. Just take a look at Rangsit, only 10 km away from Bangkok and you can feel the differences.
I know you can handle the truth Right? Don't scare him away

[DD2020]

I just feel that Skyprince's opinion didn't hurt me.

If some one gonna say the truth between our country and others there will always be something better or worser.

[fridaynightlights]

Originally Posted by Skyprince

Lol okay, I think I already " looked down" on Malaysia by saying Malaysian cities and bathrooms are dirtier than Thailand ( serious ). And income/infrastructural gap between urban and rural is more stark in Malaysia than in Thailand. In Malaysian forum , I opened a thread to describe how much I love Thailand while doing lots of bashing and criticism on Malaysia ( especially when it comes to tourism and cleanliness ) that made some forumers gone mad.

Please do not feel offended. I don't know where he got all that anger from as well. Some people are more erratic than others when it comes to judgment clouded by selective bias and nationalism.

Thai people seriously need to accept the fact and critics sometimes. Malaysia has a better infrastructure overall in terms of dispersing development. In Thailand, we have to accept that things are very centralized. Simply look at Bangkok's GDP and compare it to Buriram for example.