Thailand saw significant economic and social progress in the past five years, especially in infrastructure development, according to a report by the National Economic and Social Development Commission (NESDC).
Thosaporn Sirisamphand, NESDC secretary-general, said the report showed infrastructure development progressed with 2.45 trillion baht in investment during 2014-18, which is forecast to increase the country's competitiveness.
"There has been quite some progress in development after new investments in main infrastructure over the past 10 years," he said.
This includes 1.27 trillion baht in rail development that grew the amount of dual-track rails in the country to 2,453 kilometres, up from 251km, making a total of 5,738km of tracks that includes the first stage of Thai-Sino high-speed rail.
Investment in three motorways accounted for 302 billion baht, including Pattaya-Map Ta Phut, Bang Pa-in-Nakhon Ratchasima and Bang Yai-Kanchanaburi.
The next development includes Nakhon Pathom-Cham-am, the third phase expressway and Kathu-Patong in Phuket.
Mass transit investment in Bangkok and its vicinity accounted for 875 billion baht, with routes spanning 343km by 2025, covering 680 square km in operating service and accessing 5.13 million passengers.
Other investments were in internet broadband, a submarine cable and satellites.
Mr Thosaporn said economic growth expanded 1% in 2014, and 4.3% in the first nine months of 2018.
In 2018, NESDC gauged economic growth at 4.2%, with 4% forecast for 2019, higher than the 3.7% average global economic growth.
The agency is scheduled to announce GDP results for the fourth quarter on Feb 18.
He said the main risk factors to the economy this year were a slowdown of the global economy, Brexit, and the US-China trade war.
Private consumption is expected to increase this year, while the 1% unemployment rate will remain unchanged. Public debt is forecast at 41.8%.
Mr Thosaporn said developing the 10 target industries will drive the economy over the next decade, with total investment of 765 billion baht over the next five years.
Some 510 billion baht will go to petrochemicals, 151 billion to robotics, 13.2 billion for digital, 9.26 billion to medical and 6.5 billion for aviation.
R&D expenditure reached 1% of GDP in 2018, accounting for 154 billion baht, while the agency expects R&D expenditure will reach 2% of GDP by 2022.
The agency suggested development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and startups should be accelerated because they accounted for 42.6% of GDP in the first 10 months of 2018, up from 39.7% in 2014.
In many developed countries, SMEs account for 70-80% of GDP.
He said the tourism infrastructure should be developed to direct visitors to second tier provinces to redirect income to remote areas. The sector is projected to drive the economy this year with a total of 40 million foreign visitors.
Tourism accounted for 14.2% of GDP in 2014 and 18.4% in 2018.