Economic Implications of China's "Go-West" Policy: A View from Thailand‪.‬

I. Introduction The People's Republic of China embarked on economic reform and has gradually opened the country to the outside world since 1979. As a result, the Chinese economy grew at an extremely rapid pace over the last two decades. However, the rapid growth, which took place mainly in the eastern coastal region, caused a large disparity in economic development between the east and the rest of the country. Recognizing this, the Chinese Government decided to revise the direction and policy of its regional economic development. The result of this revision is the China's Great Western Development Strategy, or the so-called "Go-West" policy, which puts greater emphasis on the development of the relatively backward and mostly inland western region. The purpose of this research note is to examine how this policy came about, and to assess the implication of this "Go-West" policy for Thailand.