Thailand to Bet on "Masters" to Lift Growth, says Deputy PM Yodchanan

 

Yodchanan Wongsawat outlines plans for chip talent, scientific wellness and high-value food, backed by research infrastructure and startup funding.

 

Thailand will invest in people rather than technology alone, building deep expertise to create a higher-income economy, Deputy Prime Minister and Higher Education Minister Yodchanan Wongsawat said on Tuesday (20 October 2026).

 

Speaking at the Nation Forum 2027 dinner talk on "Thailand's Agenda", Yodchanan, who oversees the government's human capital policy, said the country must move from producing graduates who look for jobs to producing people who create them.

 

 

From job seekers to job creators

A former biomedical engineering lecturer who worked on brain-computer interfaces, Yodchanan recalled a student who asked him what job he would do after graduating.

 

"It sounded like an easy question, but I could not answer it," he said.

 

The minister said the exchange showed the distance between Thailand's cutting-edge research and its industry. He stopped taking new students for a time to rethink the problem, then founded a start-up using brain-computer technology to detect drowsy driving, with profits funding the same interface for people with disabilities.

 

"Today we deliver job seekers," he said. "What Thailand has not yet produced is the job creator."

 

 

Why Thailand needs "masters"

Thai students abroad are confident of competing with anyone, he said, yet as a country Thailand remains middle-income. He called this the gap between "individual mastery" and collective strength.

 

Singapore, he noted, built itself in about 50 years with no natural resources by investing in deep knowledge and human capital.

 

"Technology may not last long," he said. "Why not invest in the people who create technology?"

 

 

 

He described the government's concept as a "Nation of Masters", under the working name Thailand Square. Mastery means going progressively deeper into a subject.

 

In his example, a keen golfer starts with the club and ends up studying materials science, eventually creating innovations.

 

In the age of AI, he argued, individuals must build distinctive expertise that AI cannot replicate because AI depends on data. Thailand's workforce should be strong in physics and electronics for semiconductors, in biology and chemistry for biotechnology, and in algorithms and AI.

 

 

A new economy, not just a larger old one

Yodchanan noted that Thailand's economy rests on agriculture, industry, and logistics and tourism, but an ageing population means GDP will not grow if it continues as it is.

 

The country needs "new" high-value versions of each sector. He said Thailand may not be the best choice in a head-to-head AI race, but it has genuine advantages in the wellness economy because it has the expertise and the data.

 

Three projects launched this year build on its existing industries:

A programme to train people for the semiconductor industry.

A scientific wellness initiative, covering functional and medical foods rather than hotels and spas, aimed at raising the value of farm produce "a hundredfold or a thousandfold".

A third project turning agricultural produce into high-value food.

 

He used an apple grower to illustrate the chain. A farmer who masters apple growing can be linked to agri-tech, science and industrial processing. If a start-up built on that chain becomes a unicorn, he said, the farmer can grow with it.

 

 

 

Money, intellectual property and research

Yodchanan said a new growth engine needs high-risk research, funded by venture capital and other non-bank sources. Because Thailand is an open society, it must protect intellectual property, working with the Ministry of Commerce. Research and development must also generate income.

 

"If R&D does not generate revenue, it will not happen," he said.

 

Thailand need not pour more money into old industries, though some may be kept for now, he said. The priority is to upskill workers and build infrastructure for change.

 

He asked what edge a Thai start-up would have abroad and suggested the answer lies in a community in which like-minded young people connect. University and research knowledge then adds value, manufacturing delivers production, and entrepreneurs scale up overseas.

 

That in turn draws in foreign funding that feeds back into the system. On semiconductors, he said Thailand should not start with factories. It should start by training people who are the strongest in physics and electronics, and the rest would follow.

 

 

Education and research infrastructure

To build this "Nation of Masters", Yodchanan argued that the education system must learn to value practical mastery over mere academic credentials.

 

Reforming vocational pathways, he noted, could provide a vital lifeline for pupils who drop out between Grades 7 and 12 due to financial hardship, offering them a clear route through technical certificates into higher education, steady income and social recognition.

 

Crucially, cultivating top-tier talent requires cutting-edge scientific infrastructure. Citing a synchrotron light source currently under construction in Thailand, Yodchanan illustrated how advanced technology allows researchers to observe battery degradation at a molecular level in real time.

 

"We do not lack education," he said, "but sometimes we lack the finest eyes to see what is happening inside."

 

By equipping researchers with the tools to reach first principles in their fields, the government aims to bridge the long-standing divide between academic theory and commercial innovation.

 

As the minister overseeing Thailand's human capital agenda, Yodchanan pledged to reinforce this research infrastructure—positioning deep human expertise, rather than technology alone, as the foundation for the nation's economic future.