• While the presence of natural resource endowments and a developed agricultural sector serve as
prerequisites, the implementation of innovation and market-shaping industrial policy is essential to
achieve value addition in bioproductions
• The current development of the Thai bioeconomy sector has its origins in the innovation initiatives
implemented in the early 2000s by the Thai National Innovation Agency (NIA) in collaboration with a
few major private and public sector actors.
• The 2017 Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Strategy marks the mainstreaming, rather than the establishment,
of bioproductions as targets for industrial policy in Thailand.
• Value addition in bioproductions has been achieved not just through the BCG Strategy, but through
a 20-year constant adaption of policy to the innovation phase and to different levels of technological
sophistication, from biofuels to bioplastics, leaving a valuable policy legacy.
• Regulatory, governance and market-shaping reforms are needed for the development of the biotech
industry in higher value-added productions, such as biopharmaceuticals
