Trade
Export growth has traditionally been the major driver of the Thai economy and has contributed to the diversification of the country's industrial structure. Manufactured exports, in particular, have gained importance - accounting for 80 percent of total exports in the past few years. Thailand is now a major exporter of computers and parts, textiles, gems and jewelry, electronic and automotive products, in addition to agricultural products. Thailand imports used industrial machinery, electric circuit boards, airplanes, passenger cars and trucks, medical science apparatus, crop seeds, chemicals, and crude oil.

Agriculture
Thailand is an agricultural country and the most important crop is rice. Thailand has been the world leader in rice exports. Besides rice, other economic crops are sugar cane, corn, tapioca, and Para rubber, and together with livestock and fishery products, they bring in an annual income of a hundred million baht to the country. From the 1960s onward, many factors have made rice farmers turn to growing other crops. This trend began with sugar cane because the price of sugar in the world market rose sharply. The growing of tapioca as an economic crop for export increased in the 1960s because of its great demand in Europe for animal feed production. Corn production increased as well because of the rising price of corn in the world market.
Apart from these, the area planted in other crops such as soybean, cotton, oil-producing crops, and mung bean increased to 10 million rai. The surge in pineapple growing in the 1970s has made Thailand the second largest canned pineapple exporter in the world. During this time, many areas in the Central region were developed for breeding cattle for meat and milk. The growing of tobacco expanded to the North, and the cultivation of rubber trees on plantations spread throughout the South. In addition, forests of eucalyptus and other fast-growing trees were grown to produce raw materials for paper pulp and fiber factories.

Industry
The Thai industrial sector, often joint-ventures which foreign companies, produces a wide range of goods for the local market as well as for export. Some are high-tech products such as computer parts and electric appliances, while others are products of light industry like the textile business, shoe production, toys, watches, etc. Initially, Thailand started to produce manufactured goods locally to replace imports which resulted in the emergence of various industries such as automobile tire production, the textile industry, petroleum, chemicals, canned food, soap, medicine, steel wire, paper, sheet glass, and car assembly.