BANGKOK, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) — The Thai government is set to embark on a new economic model focusing on value-based economy so as to turn Thailand into a high-income country.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will travel to Phuket next week to launch the Startup 2016 event and he expects to further raise the number of startups in the country.

Chalermpol Tuchinda, director of Software Park Thailand of the National Science and Technology Development Agency, said new startups, small- and medium-sized enterprises, will highlight innovation and technology.

In line with Thailand's previous economic models, the new one is called Thailand 4.0, which will further reduce disparities and imbalanced development, according to Suvit Maesincee, deputy minister of commerce.

Suvit Maesincee told reporters in a recent press conference that there are three key elements in the implementation of the new model - policy reorientation, trade- induced transformation and investment-led transformation.

There are now around 5,000 startups in Thailand, and the total number of the startups is expected to climb to 10,000 by the end of 2017.

Thailand has gone through three development models, Thailand 1. 0 focusing on agriculture, Thailand 2.0 on light industry and Thailand 3.0 on heavy industry.