Services Exports: An Evolution And Evaluation Of Thailands Services Exports In The Context Of ASEAN-5

Abstract

The services sector plays an important role in the economic transformation of a country. The growing tradability of services provides new challenges and opportunities to Thailands services industries. Underpinning these challenges and opportunities is the competitiveness and export structure of the services sector. Thailands current services export structure is a manifest of its relative specialisation based upon given resources, activities, and strategies. To assess the competitiveness of Thailands services sector, the paper computes the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) indices of Thailands transport, travel, insurance, and financial services. Specifically, the paper evaluates the shifting export competitiveness of Thailands services industries in the context of ASEAN-5. Among other factors, export competitiveness in services depends upon the height of market access barriers, targeted under GATS and AFAS. The paper analyses Thailands service liberalisation scorecard in terms of its commitments to liberalise trade in services. Acknowledging the fact that the domestic, regional, and global trading environment is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for services firms to participate in international trade, the paper signifies the need to work on various industry, firm, and mode-specific factors that underpin competitiveness of the Thai services industry.