Bridging the Gap: Learning from South Korea's KOCCA Model to Build a Concrete Public-Private Partnership Framework for Soft Power Promotion in Thailand

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the public-private partnership (PPP) institutional framework for soft power promotion in Thailand and to derive actionable reform principles through focused comparative analysis with South Korea’s Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) model. Since 2023, Thailand has intensified efforts to transform its cultural assets into global influence, primarily through the 'One Family, One Soft Power' (OFOS) initiative and the National Soft Power Strategy Committee (NSPSC). The analysis finds that, despite significant political commitment and investment, Thailand's PPP framework remains fragmented, legally ambiguous, and weakly institutionalized, marked specifically by the absence of a statutory lead agency, diffuse budgetary responsibility across more than fifteen government units, and the structural marginalization of private-sector actors to a consultative rather than co-governance role. At the same time, Thailand's findings reveal genuine foundational strengths, including a rich portfolio of internationally recognized cultural assets, cuisine, performing arts, festival culture, and a rapidly growing entertainment sector, alongside demonstrated political will and existing subcommittee structures that provide a basis for institutional reform. Drawing on comparative institutional analysis of South Korea's Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), the article identifies three governance elements from these comparators that are most transferable to Thailand's institutional context: the establishment of a unified statutory lead agency with directive authority, the creation of a co-governed creative investment fund with structured private co-financing, and the implementation of a formal interagency coordination protocol supported by systematic impact measurement. The article argues that selectively adapting these regional models to Thailand's administrative culture and political economy, rather than wholesale replication, offers the most viable pathway to converting Thailand's existing cultural strengths into coherent, accountable, and internationally competitive soft power outcomes.