Chon Buri
Chonburi demonstrates niche construction: $1.6B Japanese investment in 1982 engineered Thailand's automotive industry, now evolving into $44B EEC smart city.
Chonburi exemplifies deliberate niche construction—the biological process where organisms engineer their own environment to create conditions for success. In 1982, Thailand launched the Eastern Seaboard Development Program, explicitly designing this province as an industrial ecosystem. The World Bank rejected funding, deeming it irrational. Japan stepped in with $1.6 billion, and Japanese automakers followed the infrastructure investment, creating the path dependence that still defines the region.
The strategy worked beyond expectations. Laem Chabang, completed in 1991 on what was a fishing village, became Thailand's largest deep-sea port. The surrounding industrial estates now manufacture vehicles for Toyota, Honda, and Ford. As of 2025, the Eastern Economic Corridor spanning Chonburi and neighboring provinces covers 13,285 square kilometers and receives up to 15 years of corporate tax exemption for target industries. The government has committed 1.35 trillion baht ($44 billion) to transform the EEC into a smart city and financial hub by 2037.
Chonburi's curious duality reveals a second evolutionary strategy: Pattaya, discovered by American GIs during Vietnam as an R&R destination, coexists with the industrial zones. The province simultaneously hosts beach tourism and petrochemical refineries, operating two parallel economic ecosystems that share infrastructure but serve different niches. This diversification provides resilience that Bangkok's primate city concentration lacks.