Before the economic crisis in 1997, Thailand was named one of the Asian Newly Indus-trialized Countries (NICs) with an average economic growth rate of 8-9percent during 1993- 95. The crisis resulted in a negative growth rate of -7.8 percent in 1998. Moreover, the impact of the economic recession in the world market has affected the country's total exports, which amounted to US$57 billion (US$1=31.5 bahts) and US$53 billion (US$1=41.6 bahts) in 1997 and 1998, respectively. The economic growth forecast for 1999 is expected to be around 3-4 percent. Efforts to revive the economy are currently being implemented in both the government and the private sector. The linkage between the sta-tus of science and technology and the economic status of a country has long been noted. At this stage, it is crucial for Thailand to increase the tech-nological capability of the country, to make effi-cient use of its resources, and to reduce the cost of production, thereby increasing economic growth and competitiveness. Despite the country's industrialization, agri-culture has remained a significant part of the economy. Thailand has been moving towards in-dustrial- based agriculture and has focused on the development of postharvest and processing tech-nologies that are the major problems for indus-try. Biotechnology has become the country's priority for research and development (R&D) and for the benefit of the private sector as well as ru-ral development.