Effects on Wealth in Lopburi Province - Essay Example

Disparities occur when some areas experience rapid development and progress but some areas do not. Thus, the under-developed area has to experience a significantly lower standard of living. In recent years, there have been many international organizations and trading blocs that have become the main source of support and aid in the development of the economy. This paper is dedicated to research the effectiveness in the reduction of disparities in wealth that the operation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) organization provides to Thailand.

This is a country where there are significant disparities between standards of living. The GINI coefficient index in 2009 showed that 42.6% of Thai people had a lower standard of living compared to 36% in the UK1. This interested me about what has been done to reduce this global issue. In order to find out how beneficial the scheme of the ASEAN Free Trade Area is, I chose to focus on the local scale of exports of agricultural products produced and traded in a local province of Thailand. I decided upon Lopburi, which is a province the central part of the country.

I will begin by giving an overview of the principles of ASEAN and AFTA. Next, I will move to an analysis of the Thai economy. Finally, I will prove the benefits it provides to the farmers, especially those who live in Lopburi, by analyzing the statistical social and economic information on the reduction of disparities in income.