Yuan, T.; Ma, C., and Bo, X., 2020. The new economy pillar for coastal countries along the B&R under COVID-19 impact: Explore new overseas talent cultivating model from Study-Abroad-through-Chinese-Program (SACPs) in Thailand. In: Li, L. and Huang, X. (eds.), Sustainable Development in Coastal Regions: A Perspective of Environment, Economy, and Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 112, pp. 257-261. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Thailand is an important coastal country that highly relies on marine economy and coastal tourism industry. In recent years, marine fisheries has been damaged due to resources over exploiting. Meanwhile, the coastal tourism industry has stagnated due to the impact of the COVID-19. Therefore, to find new economic growth points become the urgent task for Thailand and other coastal countries along with the B&R. Education trade has been rising with the trend of globalization. China and Thailand have engaged in educational activities closely, with the support of the B&R Initiative, but still lack of experimental evidence. Thus, it is necessary to conduct research on this group of international students who are the new economy pillar for future Coastal Countries along the B&R. This research aims to explore a new Overseas Talent Cultivating Model that based on Image Theory and TPB Theory for Chinese international students. Structural equation modeling was adopted to test the paths of the proposed model. This research has provided a starter and evidences for future researches about this newborn group along the coastal countries' education activities.