Dr. Chen aims to lead the country beyond the upper-middle-income stage to a high-income level, while proposing a roadmap to eliminate poverty among Thais and propel universities to world-class status.
On 13 Jan 2026 GMT+7, Yossanan Wongsawat, the Pheu Thai Party's prime ministerial candidate, gave a special lecture to political science students at Thammasat University titled “Education Policy, Innovation, and Thailand on the World Stage.” He highlighted the country's fourfold crisis as major obstacles: an aging society lacking new labor, monopolization by large capital blocking startups, a technology trap of buying more than creating, and escalating public and household debt reaching a ceiling.
Yossanan stated that to address these issues, the Pheu Thai Party proposes the “No Poor Thais” roadmap, including measures to increase income for those below the poverty line, enhance healthcare with AI via the 30-baht universal healthcare program, and reduce living costs through a 20-baht flat-rate electric train system. The core is to reform universities to world-class levels to shift Thailand from a technology purchaser to an innovation creator, with the ultimate goal of lifting the country beyond the middle-income trap to confidently reach high-income status in the future.