Bangkok: Thailand has an opportunity to accelerate its transition toward a high-income, innovation-driven economy by raising productivity growth through upgrading and greater dynamism across firms, people, and regions, according to a new World Bank Group report launched today at the Bangkok Business Summit 2026. According to World Bank, the report, titled Building Thailand's Future Today, outlines a development vision and roadmap to help Thailand move into higher-value activities and create more and better jobs. The report was launched as government and business leaders advance discussions on Thailand's next phase of economic transformation, ahead of the IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bangkok in October. The report finds that the next phase will require stronger productivity growth driven by technology adoption, innovation, skills, greater domestic value added, more competitive firms, and productive cities. Together, these reforms could put Thailand on a path toward the 5.4 percent annual GDP per c apita growth needed to reach high-income status by 2037. Stephen N. Ndegwa, World Bank Division Director for Thailand and Myanmar, stated that Thailand has achieved transformative growth within a generation before, and it can do so again. The World Bank Group is committed to working with the government, private sector, and other partners to bring global knowledge, financing, and implementation experience to support reforms that raise productivity, strengthen competitiveness, and create better jobs. Looking ahead, the report sets out a reform agenda built around two mutually reinforcing priorities: upgrading and dynamism. Upgrading will require moving further into higher-value activities by accelerating technology adoption, innovation, skills development, domestic value added, and investment spillovers. The report identifies five industries of the future in which Thailand has strong comparative advantages and significant potential to create better jobs: advanced manufacturing, sustainable and wellness touris m, digital services, agrifood, and creative industries. Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, World Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific, emphasized that Thailand's high-income ambition is within reach, but getting there will require a new phase of higher-value growth. Thailand can build on its strengths by enabling more firms to scale and compete, investing in skills and innovation, and ensuring that prosperity reaches people and communities across the country. Greater dynamism amongst firms, people, and cities will be central to achieving this vision. Building Thailand's firms of the future will require enabling more businesses to enter, scale, and compete. This calls for stronger competition, deeper spillovers from foreign investment, deeper trade integration, better access to finance, and broader innovation to help startups and SMEs grow and create more formal jobs. Building Thailand's workforce of the future will be equally important as competitiveness shifts increasingly from low wages toward skills, kno w-how, technology, and innovation. Strengthening foundational, vocational, AI and technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills, expanding lifelong learning, improving social mobility, and enabling more people to participate in productive employment for longer will help raise productivity and open pathways to better jobs. The report also calls for building Thailand's cities of the future to create good jobs in more places by strengthening secondary cities as engines of growth, while making Bangkok more productive, green, and innovative. As Bangkok prepares to welcome the global economic and development community for the Annual Meetings, the Bangkok Business Summit 2026 provides an important platform to connect Thailand's reform ambitions with international knowledge, investment, and partnerships, and help turn the report's recommendations into action.