On the evening of April 4, 2024, Institute for International and Area Studies of Tsinghua University invited Dr. Upalat Korwatanasakul, Associate Professor of the School of Social Sciences of Waseda University and Consultant Expert of the United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies on Sustainable Development, to give the fifth online lecture in the series of lectures on "Industrial Development and Value Chain Reconstruction in Southeast Asia under Great Changes", with the theme of "Thailand and the Middle-Income Trap: Analysis from the Perspective of Global Value Chain". The lecture was hosted by Qin Beichen, a doctoral student of the Institute for International and Area Studies of Tsinghua University, and nearly 100 teachers and students from domestic and foreign universities and professionals interested in the topic attended the lecture.
At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Korwatanasakul gave a brief introduction to his academic career, and introduced the theme of this lecture "Thailand and the Middle-Income Trap" from his own experience in studying Thailand. Dr. Korwatanasakul first defined academic concepts such as "middle-income trap", "middle-income technology trap" and "global value chain", and then introduced the audience to the macro-development background and current situation of the Thai economy through a large number of literature and data citations, and then analyzed the relationship between the global value chain and the "middle-income trap" from the national and industrial levels, and put forward a series of unique and rich insights. After the lecture, Dr. Korwatanasakul and the audience had an in-depth discussion on topics such as the transfer of manufacturing from mainland China to Southeast Asia, the difficulties of industrial development in Thailand, and the development of artificial intelligence and digital technology.
Upalat Korwatanasakul is an associate professor at the School of Social Sciences, Waseda University, and a consulting expert at the United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies on Sustainable Development. He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University. His research focuses on economic development in the Asia-Pacific region (especially Southeast Asian countries), involving artificial intelligence, digital economy, global value chains and many other fields. He has served as a project manager at the ASEAN-Japan Center and a part-time researcher at the Waseda Center for Carbon Neutral Societies. He has conducted collaborative research with major international organizations and research institutions such as the Asian Development Bank Institute and the ASEAN and East Asian Economic Research Institute. He won the Waseda University President's Teaching Award in 2020.
Editor: Changhan Cao
Proofreader: Southeast Asian Studies group
