{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Road Blocks: The Big Issues That Thailand Needs to Solve [S8.E20]","description":"Greg and Ed discuss an article on Ajarn.com by Dr. Jesse Sessions called \u201cWhat Does the Future Hold\u201d which discusses some of the bigger problems currently facing Thailand and how they might impact the country\u2019s prosperity, competitiveness and social longevity. The guys walk through the issues one by one and give their take on its significance, The first issue is border security. Ed points out that Thailand actually has major security issues on the Burmese, Malaysian, and Cambodian borders, something that is easy to forget from the security of Bangkok. In fact several of the later issues tie in to this problem, including the major problems of government corruption and of scam centers in Cambodia and Burma, that implicate Thailand in international crime networks. Greg points out that these \u2018scam cities\u2019 are sometimes connected to the Thai power grid or Internet service and may also be trafficking victims through Bangkok. As a \u2018rule of law\u2019 guy, Ed emphasizes the importance of cleaning up these issues and ridding Southeast Asia of its Wild West image.  Another cluster of issues centers around the economy, such as the slower the expected recovery of the tourism sector after COVID and Thailand\u2019s perennial fixture in the \u2018middle income trap,\u2019 clearly surpassing Cambodia but somehow also managing to be miles away from South Korea and Japan. Check in for discussion of a bunch of other topics, including demographics, AI adoption, and environmental problems, and make sure to read the full article for a more thorough breakdown of each issue.   ","author_name":"The Bangkok Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/www.bangkokpodcast.com","html":"