Economics
Thailand's Skills Problem Is Slowing Down Its High-Tech Push
- Education Minister says past efforts to boost standards failed
- One-third of students functionally illiterate, World Bank says
Pedestrians walk on a foot bridge above traffic as it rains at dusk in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 21, 2017.
Photographer: Taylor Weidman/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Thailand’s Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin poses a rhetorical question as he ponders the task of making innovation a bigger engine of economic growth: would people prefer an electric car developed in the Southeast Asian nation, or one made by Tesla Inc.?
“Are you dreaming?” Teerakiat said in an interview. “We can’t even invent a motorbike.”