Meet Akanat Promphan, Thailand’s new industry minister
38-year-old from political family gets key portfolio
The list of 35 new Cabinet members of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s administration was published in the Royal Gazette on Wednesday, following royal endorsement on Tuesday.
Most of the ministers and deputy ministers have retained the portfolios they held in the previous Cabinet of Srettha Thavisin, but some are newcomers who will hold key ministerial positions for the first time in their political careers.
Among the notable new ministers is Industry Minister Akanat Promphan from the Ruam Thai Sang Chart Party, who will replace caretaker minister Pimpattra Wichaikul after the swearing-in ceremony on Friday.
The Nation takes a look at the rise of this 38-year-old politician to holding a key Cabinet position.
Akanat, nicknamed “Khing”, was born on January 12, 1986 in Bangkok as the second son of Pornthep Techapaibul and Srisakul Promphan, who later divorced. His father once served as a deputy minister in the government of Chuan Leekpai, while his mother, the sister of veteran Democrat politician Niphon Promphan, eventually remarried former deputy PM Suthep Thaugsuban.
He attended Saint Gabriel's College in Bangkok until he was 10, after which he studied in Australia and then at Charterhouse School in the United Kingdom. He read engineering, economics and management at St John's College, Oxford, receiving a bachelor's and a master's degree.
Akanat entered politics shortly after graduating from Oxford, becoming private secretary to his stepfather, then deputy PM Suthep. Akanat was subsequently elected a Democrat MP, representing Bangkok in the 2011 general election, being the youngest MP elected that year at 25.
Akanat and other members of his family received acclaim for their work during the Great Flood of 2011, when he delivered food and other supplies to flood victims in Bangkok and Southern Thailand.
In June 2013, he resigned his seat from Parliament to help lead the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), a movement dedicated to ousting the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, and served as its spokesman.
On May 14, 2014, the Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for 43 PDRC leaders, including Akanat, on charges of treason and others, stemming from the movement’s illegal rallies. The Appeal Court however acquitted Akanat in June 2024.
Akanat left the Democrat Party in March 2022 and joined the Ruam Thai Sang Chart Party, where he was elected the secretary-general five months later.
