The Thai Competitiveness Development Office (CDO) (Business Development Department) March 2005 September 2006

The Competitiveness Development Office (CDO), part of Thailand’s National Economic and Social Development Board, provided Kenan Foundation Asia with US $650,000 in funding to carry out a study of business clusters in Thailand under a “Cluster Mapping Project” in order to identify and gather information on clusters, assess the potentials of selected clusters, and to review strategic challenges as a prelude to possible pilot projects designed to assist those clusters.

Under this project, 152 clusters throughout Thailand were identified and analyzed using Professor Michael Porter’s Diamond Model to assess their potentials for further development. The final study showed that strong cluster leadership can overcome internal competition, and that division is crucial to a clusters ability to coordinate strategies and actions. It was also found that many of the clusters studied faced internal challenges and difficulties in the areas of cluster management, linkages within the cluster, market opportunities, and factors of production.