Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been included on the TIME100 Next list of leaders in 2024, according to Time magazine.
Ms Paetongtarn, who was elected as Thailand's 31st prime minister after property tycoon Srettha Thavisin was dismissed by the Constitutional Court, was the only Thai to appear on the list of the leader category.
The list is divided into five categories: Artist, Phenoms, Innovators, Advocates and Leaders.
"This summer, Paetongtarn Shinawatra made history. On Aug 18, just days before her 38th birthday, she was confirmed as Thailand's Prime Minister and Asia's youngest-ever female leader,” the US-based news publication reported.
It noted that "her rise wasn't exactly a shock: Paetongtarn is the youngest daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire media mogul who was elected Prime Minister in 2001, only to be deposed five years later."
The magazine also mentioned her family members Yingluck Shinawatra and Somchai Wongsawat, who have also held Thailand’s top job and were toppled by judicial and military interventions.
"If Paetongtarn is to avoid her family's legacy of political banishment, she must find ways to implement new economic policies while pacifying the nation’s power nexus," Time reported. It quoted what she told the magazine last year, "Thailand needs change."
The former leader of the dissolved Future Forward Party, Thanatorn Juangroongruangkit, was on the list in 2019, followed by the former leader of the dissolved Move Forward Party, Pita Limjaroenrat, last year.
Ms Paetongtarn, 38, is the first member from Pheu Thai Party to appear on the Time list, while her aunt Yingluck was included in list of "The Most Powerful Women" by Forbes in 2011 and 2012.
She was also named the Bangkok Post's Women of the Year 2024.
From left: Former prime ministers Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin Shinawatra and Yingluck Shinawatra. (Photo: Ingshin21 Instagram)
