Under the Thailand 4.0 plan, the country will be turned into a regional innovation hub by developing human resources, research and development, and innovative products, and reforming the educational, legal and other systems.

The focus will be on 10 business clusters, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said yesterday as the steering committees reported their progress to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

The 10 clusters are robots for industry, medical hubs, logistics and aero-industry, biochemical industry, digital industry, alternative auto industry, innovative electronic industry, high value and health tourism, innovative agriculture and bio-technology, and food processing, he said.

“They will drive Thailand out of the middle-income trap to become a high-income country in 20 years under the country’s strategic-economy master plan,” he said.

To achieve the country’s goals, the public and private sectors have to collaborate on the Pracha Rath project, he said.

Legal reform is one of the ways to help the country achieve its targets, Kan Trakulhool, said co-chairman of the Pracha Rath steering committee on legal reform.

He said the legal reform group planned to propose the revision of 5,000 bills that affect business investment and long-term national development. This will be complete by August next year.

Meanwhile, the country needs to boost the investment in research and development to 1 per cent of gross domestic product by next year from 0.47 per cent in 2012, said Kan, who is also co-chairman of the Pracha Rath steering committee on innovation and productivity.

“We will join together to encourage big corporates, especially listed companies in SET50 and SET100 [indices], to include their investment in R&D in their annual reports. Investment in R&D will help increase the demand for researchers, of whom there are 70,000 now in Thailand.”

That number should increase significantly, he said.

Prasert Bunsumpun, head of the Pracha Rath steering committee on pushing new “S-curve” industries – new industries aimed at revitalising growth in the Thai economy – said his panel would focus on the petrochemical super-cluster and the bio-economy to serve the “new agriculture”.

The first phase will push for the development of the Eastern Seaboard as the petrochemical super-cluster by setting up an investment budget worth Bt380 billion from this year through 2020 funded by the private sector. This would need government support in the form of tax incentives and infrastructure.

The bio-economy will provide innovative means to process agricultural projects such as sugar cane and cassava into value-added products such as biodiesel. This will require an investment of up to Bt400 billion by the private sector over 10 years. The government’s role will be to establish a database on suitable agricultural locations.

Chartsiri Sophonpanich, head of the Pracha Rath steering committee on developing the country’s infrastructure, said the group was proposing a “science city” with the goal of being a hub for R&D to strengthen the bio-economy.

Chartsiri said the committee also believed that the Pracha Rath residential project should be extended into a second phase to help 2.7 million people own homes.

Other committees are working on education, export and investment, tourism, small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups, and the rural economy.

“I will consider all of the proposals and also cooperate with all of the ministries to support the 12 Pracha Rath groups to drive the country to achieve the goals,” Prayut said.