Markets Magazine
Taming Thailand’s Wild Frontier
Prayuth Chan-Ocha, the general who runs Thailand, wants to turn once unruly border regions into zones of economic prosperity.
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For much of the past century, the Thai border town of Mae Sot stood on one of Asia’s wilder frontiers.
On the opposite bank of the swirling, mud-brown Moei River in neighboring Myanmar, Karen insurgents waged a seemingly endless independence war. Smugglers trafficked guns, opium, timber, and gemstones. Then there was the two-way human cargo during the past three decades: 120,000 battle-scarred refugees seeking sanctuary in Thailand, battle-hardened mercenaries heading in the opposite direction.