Thailand needs stronger competition rules, but that alone will not create market contestability. The harder task is to tackle who gets to compete and accumulate wealth.
Thailand aims to become a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) by 2028 in an attempt to strengthen its competitiveness.
The main hurdle, as noted by Deputy Prime Minister Pakorn Nilprapunt, is bringing the country’s competition laws up to OECD standards. This will be difficult, but even harder will be changing the level of political and economic influence of those leading Thailand’s biggest businesses.
Market concentration
Market concentration in Thailand is a problem for consumers and a mechanism by which wealth is concentrated. In product markets, dominant companies keep prices high. In labour markets, large employers can use their bargaining power to suppress wages. In such markets, growth does not necessarily reduce wealth concentration. Prices remain high, wages stagnate, and smaller companies struggle to grow. This is how market power becomes wealth power.
Thailand’s legal framework
Thailand’s legal framework has not been strong enough to address this concentration of market power. The main legislation is the Trade Competition Act BE 2560 (2017), enforced by the Trade Competition Commission of Thailand (the Competition Commission).
The OECD’s 2025 review of Thailand’s competition law and policy identifies several areas for improvement, including the transparency of commission board selection, clearer procedural rules for investigations, and clearer lines of responsibility between regulators.
For regulatory responsibility, nowhere was this ambiguity clearer than in the controversial merger between True Corporation and DTAC, then Thailand’s second- and third-largest mobile network operators.
In 2023, True Corporation and DTAC completed Southeast Asia’s largest telecom merger by combined enterprise value. The deal reduced the number of major mobile operators from three to two, raising concerns about market competition.
The merger fell outside the Competition Commission’s review process because the sector has its own regulator, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (the Telecommunications Commission). The Telecommunications Commission, however, maintained that it could not approve or reject the ‘amalgamation’, the legal term used by the two operators. The term was significant, as most commissioners adopted an interpretation that placed the transaction outside the scope of an acquisition within the same service sector. As a result, rather than approving the deal, the Telecommunications Commission simply acknowledged the merger with conditions attached. In the end, no regulator formally considered the deal.
Regulatory ambiguity has translated into a market competition problem. A 2025 report noted that True Corporation’s average revenue per user, reported to shareholders, is rising, while cheaper mobile packages have become less available, limiting consumer choice.
Thailand’s biggest companies
True Corporation is partly owned by Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, Thailand’s largest conglomerate, whose businesses span agricultural products, food, retail, automobiles, and telecommunications. CP Group is among the 16 Thai companies included in Forbes’ 2025 Global 2000 list of the world’s largest public companies. Yet many of these companies remain rooted in concentrated domestic sectors rather than globally innovative products or services. AIS, Thailand’s other major mobile operator, is also on the list. Its largest shareholder is Gulf Development, a leading energy company.
Thailand’s Rich List
The overlap between corporate size and personal wealth is clear in Forbes’ list of Thailand’s 50 Richest: the Chearavanont brothers of CP Group and Sarath Ratanavadi, Gulf Development’s chief executive rank second and third. Other prominent names include Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi of Thai Beverage, Thailand’s largest beverage producer and distributor, and Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha of King Power, whose business rests heavily on airport duty-free concessions.
The rich list is more than a catalogue of individual fortunes. A study drawing on Forbes’ Thailand’s rich list data between 2006 and 2019 found that the richest business groups and families accumulated wealth at a pace greater than both Thailand’s economy and other wealthy groups. Wealth was not only concentrated at the top; it became more concentrated within the top. According to the World Inequality Database, as of 2024, Thailand’s richest 1% holds around one-third of national personal wealth, and the rest of the top 10% holds roughly another third. The bottom half of the population, by contrast, holds only about 3.5%.
The concern is not only who dominates existing markets, but who gains access to new economic opportunities, such as virtual banking or data centres. In June 2025, the Thai businesses behind the first virtual bank applications approved by the Ministry of Finance include CP Group, existing banks Krung Thai and SCB, and PTT, the publicly listed national oil company. All appear in Forbes’ Global 2000. A similar pattern is visible in digital infrastructure. In January 2026, five of seven data centre projects approved by the Board of Investment were linked to True Corporation, Gulf Development, and AIS. They do not merely dominate individual markets; they are shaping the direction of the Thai economy.
Some scholars argue that Thailand’s economy moved further towards hierarchical capitalism since the Prayuth Chan-o-cha era (2014-2023), with a small circle of conglomerates occupying economy-shaping positions. This differs from the East Asian ‘Tigers’, where state support for large firms was often tied to industrial upgrading and long-term national strategy. In Thailand, large conglomerates have gained room to lead the economy without comparable developmental obligations. Smaller businesses may benefit, but only within the hierarchy.
The OECD is right that Thailand needs stronger competition rules, but rules alone will not create real market contestability. The harder task is to confront the political economy that decides who gets to compete and who gets to accumulate wealth.
This article is part of a special series on ‘Governing for Growth: Democracy and Development in Southeast Asia’ – a joint initiative of Insights and Melbourne Asia Review. It marks this year’s Southeast Asia Oration by Indonesian Economist and former Minister of Finance of Indonesia, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, hosted by Asialink and Asia Institute, University of Melbourne.
Image: The entrance to a True and dtac outlet in Bangkok, January 2024. Credit: piyaphun phunyammalee/Shutterstock.
