Welcome to the RICS website section for the Kingdom of Thailand. Thailand, which translates as 'Land of The Free', and was formerly known as Siam until 1949, is located in Southeastern Asia, bordering the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, southeast of Myanmar (Burma), and also bordering Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. Situated close to the equator, Thailand enjoys a tropical climate with a wet season from mid-May to October, and a dry season from November to April.
Thailand's population is approximately 65m, about 8m of whom live in the metropolis of Bangkok. With a workforce of around 38m, 42% are employed in agriculture, 20% in industry and 37% in services. Thailand’s main exports are textiles & footwear, fishery products, rice, rubber, jewelry, motor vehicles, computers and electrical appliances.
During the 1980's, Thailand was one of the world's fastest growing economies. This changed abruptly with the collapse of the Thai baht in 1997, which in turn prompted the collapse of many of the Asian ‘tiger’ economies. The gradual recovery in the economy – and particularly in the banking system – put Thailand in a relatively favourable position to weather the storm of the 2008 global recession, although suffering through a high dependency on exports. However, Thailand's unstable and fragile political situation in the run up to - and since - the military coup of September 2006 remains a concern.
The size and rapid growth of Bangkok in the 1980’s and ‘90’s well outpaced its improvements in infrastructure, giving Bangkok the reputation of being one of the world’s most traffic-congested cities. However, in the past decade or so Bangkok has acquired elevated ‘Skytrain’ (BTS) and underground (MRT) systems, which have alleviated some of the congestion and, with planned extensions to these systems, should provide a more comprehensive metropolitan rail network. A new Bangkok international airport (Suvarnabhumi) opened in 2006, to the east of the city.
There are approximately 81 Chartered Surveyors in Thailand. About 45% specialize in Quantity Surveying with 45% in Valuation/General Practice. There are also members working in Rural Practice, Geomatics and Building Surveying.
More information about:
For more information about RICS Thailand, please contact:
Ms Orawee Musikul
t: 02 684 1500
e: ricsthailand@rics.org
For general enquiries please contact:
RICS Asia
t +852 2537 7117
f +852 2537 2756
e ricsasia@rics.org
Click on the image to enlarge
BCIS
