National industry dialogue fosters greater collaboration across Thailand’s evolving automotive manufacturing supply chain

BANGKOK (ILO News) – Thailand’s automotive sector is seeking to enhance resilience and sustainability amid growing global instability, including trade and political tensions, technological disruption and changing supply chain expectations.

A National Industry Dialogue for a Responsible and Sustainable Automotive Supply Chain in Thailand – the first of its kind for Thailand’s automotive sector – took place in Bangkok on 29 April 2025.

Supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the event brought together over 100 industry leaders, from domestic and multinational automotive and auto-parts companies across the supply chain in Thailand with representatives of government, workers’ and employers’ organizations, academic institutions as well as key trade, technology and policy bodies.

Aimed at strengthening industry-wide commitments and action to expand decent work, participants shared experiences and identified areas of collaboration to accelerate the uptake of responsible business conduct in the automotive sector, guided by international instruments like the ILO’s Tripartite declaration of principles concerning multinational enterprises and social policy (MNE Declaration).

As supply chain rules and expectations evolve, automotive firms are also facing growing calls to demonstrate their commitment to ethical business, including through human rights due diligence (HRDD). This process – which involves steps to prevent, mitigate and address companies’ human rights impacts – requires management leadership. Yet research and experience has shown it to be most effective when it’s built on a foundation of worker involvement and social dialogue.  

Speaking at the event, Kaori Nakamura-Osaka, ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific said, “Automotive manufacturing in Thailand accounts for around 10 per cent of the country’s GDP and provides employment for nearly one million workers. In the face of evolving global supply chains in auto manufacturing, today's dialogue was a tremendous opportunity to bring together key stakeholders to discuss how to enhance the resilience of the sector while striving towards improvements in decent work and responsible business practices.”

The event was organized by the ILO’s “Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Supply Chains (RISSC) project in Thailand”, funded by the Government of Japan. Since 2023, the RISSC project in Thailand has supported social sustainability efforts across the industry with pioneering research, practical tools and training and strategic policy guidance.

The project has provided training and mentoring to more than 200 industry stakeholders, including automakers and their suppliers, to strengthen social dialogue and worker-management relations, as a foundation for more effective human rights due diligence.

“By placing social dialogue and robust industrial relations at the centre of our approach, we are not just talking about sustainability; we are reinforcing it in practical, measurable ways across the Thai automotive supply chain,” said David Williams, Manager of the RISSC project. “In doing so, we are equipping the industry to not only respond to current pressures, but also to build resilience to future challenges, all while ensuring decent work is a strategic advantage.”

© ILO

For further information please contact:
Noppavut Pravat
National Project Coordinator
Email: [email protected]