When Khon Kaen town was designated the development centre for Northeast Thailand in 1962 it was a small provincial capital, undistinguished save for being the most centrally located on-rail town in the region. (See Figure 1.) Khon Kaen has since been transformed. Several tens of government agencies concerned with development in the Northeast now have regional or sub-regional offices in or near Khon Kaen. A regional technical school and the University of the Northeast have been established. A network of paved roads, a spacious, modern bus terminal and a newly constructed airfield, in addition to a renovated railway, have made Khon Kaen a major transportation hub, readily accessible to northeasterners and indeed to all of Thailand. Khon Kaen was the first provincial centre to have a town plan. Although this plan, designed to make Khon Kaen a showpiece of modern urban development, has not been carried out in toto, urban facilities have been greatly improved and expanded, and commercial activity has diversified and burgeoned. The population of Khon Kaen town increased more than fifty percent in the period 1960–1970.