A proposal to establish a special business court to handle corruption cases has been put forward, reports the 27 August edition of the Bangkok Post. For 2010, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Thailand 78 with a score of 3.5, roughly equal to that of China.  Thailand has a broad range of laws addressing corruption, adopted a second Anti-Corruption Act this year and on 1 March 2011 adopted the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), a treaty that requires signatories to adopt measures to prevent and criminalize corruption and provide international cooperation and exchange information. There has been movement in Thailand with adoption of the UNCAC and new laws, but the key, of course, is implementation.  An interesting article on the economic effects of corruption can be found here, which starts with the observation that:

Corruption also undermines economic development by generating considerable distortions and inefficiency. In the private sector, corruption increases the cost of business through the price of illicit payments themselves, the management cost of negotiating with officials, and the risk of breached agreements or detection. Although some claim corruption reduces costs by cutting red tape, the availability of bribes can also induce officials to contrive new rules and delays.