richard10365

I think the best route is to get her qualified to attend a university program. Thailand does have adult education classes to get her her secondary school certificate. Any other route keeps her limited in her life in what she can do. If you're near Bangkok you can enroll in a GED course which is also just as good.

There are online courses she can take for free if she understands English. EdX.org has some. There are others but you need to find them online.

It would be great if CMU had an international business or English program at the undergraduate level but to my knowledge they don't so CMU is really not an option. While the links you pointed out explain their program in English, these are Thai programs taught 100% in Thai language.

I would need to know more about your daughter to advise her. I'm assuming she is Thai and has studied in Thai programs her whole life. If this is not the case I apologize. Can you answer some questions for me?

• Is she more interested in English as a major, business as a major or the combination of the two?
  
  If business, then I would advise looking at Payap, Ratchabat or Ratchamongala in that order. Payap's business program is pretty competitive and they will fail her if she doesn't do the work or doesn't pass her exams. Her English would also need to be pretty strong at Payap because their textbooks come from the United States and all their classes are in English. They're use to talking to angry parents who try to convince them to pass their under performing kids but the writing's on the wall at Payap. If you don't do the work then you don't get the degree. Or you get it with a low GPA. For the other two universities, while they still have to go to class, Thai culture plays an important role in who passes or not.
  
• If she is interested in English as a major then I would go to Payap as well. The English Communication program at Payap is ran by a very competent English woman who takes her job seriously. At the same time, she is a nice teacher. But like I mentioned for the International Business Management program above, if she doesn't do the work or go to class, they will fail her.
  

• What is her official ability in English and how was it measured? For example, did she take a Paper or internet based TOEFL or IELTS test? What was her score? The English entrance requirements at Ratchmangala are so low, their International Business Management program drops about 20 students each year due to the English being more than they can handle. Rajamangala's idea of an English entrance test is an interview where they ask your name and why you want to study there. However, Ratchabaht University is somewhere in between but, as I said before, Thai culture plays an important role in who passes or not.
  
• Is she competitive in the classroom or does she not like to study. If she is not as motivated as you think she should be then she should probably consider going to Ratchabaht or Ratchamangala University. Payap would be very difficult for her.

I studied business at Payap and have a good idea of it's capabilities. I also helped with marketing and admissions which was a good experience for my degree. If you have more questions please feel free to ask.

@richard10365 thanks for very clear and understandable explanation, always wondered about that. So technically even a programmer on holiday doing a bit of coding may be working illegally then. Some grey areas comes to mind (artists, scientists)...

There is another report where immigration met with local Chamber of Commerce to clarify some immigration issues.

According to the report the question was asked, "What if I want to work in Thailand?" in which immigration replied,"If you are working for a Thai company, you will need a non-immigrant (type visa and then a work permit in order to work legally. If you are a 'digital nomad' running your own business on the internet, the immigration office says you can do this on a tourist visa."

SOURCE

Technically, from an international trade perspective, what they are doing is illegal in both Thailand and China. In 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was formed. The WTO is where 160 countries from around the world meet and agree on the rules they want for international trade. The WTO also released the General Agreement for Trade in Services (GATS) in 1995. GATS is the rule book for international trade in services. A service is a type of economic activity that is intangible, not stored, does not result in ownership and which is consumed at the point of sale (internet definition). GATS defines 12 service sectors and education is one of them.

Both the GATS agreement China signed in 1995 and the 2007 ASEAN/China trade agreement in services doesn't allow for providing a Mode 1 (cross border supply) services from Thailand in to China for language training. They might not be stealing jobs from Thai citizens but technically, they are stealing jobs from Chinese English speaking teachers inside China. It's similar to smuggling goods across the border from one country into another. In this case, it's a service being illegally exported from Thailand into China. China could complain if they wanted to. The internet business providing the service was also operating illegally in Thailand which explains why there were no work permits for that particular job to be found when the employees were asked for them by the police.

All in all, illegal foreign trade, working without a work permit or the wrong work permit and possibly not having the right visa while working.

Skraach....why you're at it, why don't you post the position he is applying for here. Perhaps one of the readers here has a CV that you would like more.

Someone mentioned this early but seems no one noticed. There are so many new housing projects selling multi-million baht houses to big Thai spenders all around Promenada. There are condos going up also near by. Access to Promenada is from 5 or 6 different directions. This area of Chiang Mai is the new rich part of the city and growing wildly. I think Promenada and its vendors might be taking a loss right now but in the future it will probably be very busy.

_{I would consider that person as not having a doctorate.}

Most ASEAN countries don't allow foreign tour guides. Foreigners can be tourism agency managers but cannot actively give tours. With that said, I'm sure there are a lot of foreign tour guides in Thailand.

The Surface Pro 4 is about to be released.

True, but market estimates are suggesting Pro 4 will be targeting an August 2015 US launch (No actual launch dates have been confirmed by Microsoft) - SE Asia was around 3 months latter for pro 3 last launch - Hence (nearly) 12 months wait time - And this is waiting for a product that might not be a step change - other than its form factor (Surface mini and 15 inch version).

I did think about the possibilities of Pro 4, but the question is not when to buy, but rather more about where i.e Malaysia would still be the same question I posed - Why not buy in Malaysia rather than Thailand whichever version of the surface being bought?

Don't forget Windows 10 is due out next year. I don't know if the date has been announced, but maybe your message hints at it. My guess is the Pro 4 release would coincide.

If you're going to buy in Malaysia do it in a larger city. I wouldn't expect much in a remote place like Langkawi. Penang has a few IT malls, direct ferry link from Langkawi (or at least was, last I looked).

When I lived in Malaysia I would buy accessories for my peculiar phone (now antiquated) from Hong Kong. Never had to deal with customs, duty etc. Nearly everyone travels with a laptop these days, but if customs notices you have several they will definitely be curious.

That thing about having it delivered to your hotel before you get there: You may get to the hotel and be told there is no package, never arrived. You contact the vendor, he says it was shipped and has the delivery proof and you will be charged. Good luck with that.

Some good points made in your post:

There is a specific Microsoft authorised dealer on Langkawi I am going to buy from - And pricing seems less negotiable on the surface products and hence going to Penang might not save a lot (I have made contact with a dealer however there just in case).

Its a pain ditching the packaging since its good to keep the manuals and other bits and pieces in and remembering where they are and even increases the resale value with original box - so not sure if I might chance keeping the packaging.

Windows 10 is a good point - However I always try and stay one version behind - since they software vendors are always running late on their support and usually you have to upgrade your existing software from them to be fully compatible - I am running Adobe creative suite and various other video and image animation design applications and some are still not fully compatible with current windows, hence the wait on Win 10 is not high priority.

I'm running Windows 10 evaluation version already. It's awesome. The best of Windows 7 and Windows 8! It's an Apple killer!!!

I think if you can save 7,000 baht on a Surface Pro from Malaysia then do it. But how much does it cost to travel, stay in a hotel and then return to Thailand? I'm not saying that cost is not worth it. It would be a great excuse to go to Malaysia but you might use up your expected savings on your travel expenses.

I love the specs of the Surface Pro 3. If I had the money I would buy one too. I also understand how you feel about waiting for the Surface Pro 4. When i was looking for a tablet I had sights set on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition. I had to wait for months before it came to Thailand. I'm definitely happy with my choice but would love to be able to by a Surface Pro 3 or 4.

The Surface Pro 4 is about to be released.

Sorry...that's 32 jobs under the MRA-TP with 52 possible certificates.

I think it's amazing how little most people know about Asean. Most of the AEC objectives have already been met. While there is still work to do, compared to what has already been accomplished, there is not much left to do in accordance with the AEC Blueprint. Speaking of the AEC Blueprint, if there is an objective that people think should be a part of the AEC and it is not in the AEC Blueprint, then it is not part part of the Asean Integration process for the AEC.

I am not sure where you get your information from, but from what I understand, there are things that were due to be implemented in 2008 that still haven't been implemented, and they're still a long way from having all the laws and processes in place that they need for the start of AEC at the end of this year.

AEC Scorecard

http://www.asean.org/resources/publications/asean-publications/item/asean-economic-community-scorecard-3

Just as an example, the "scorecard" (from 2012) indicates that the "Free Flow of Skilled Labour" is fully implemented.

The free flow of skilled labour for AEC is generally based around accreditations from one country being accepted in another. For Thais to use their skills, say for architecture, in another country, first they have to get accreditation from a central Thai based "architecture organisation". This is on top of having the relevant degree. There is no currently no central Thai organisation that gives this accreditation. The process to get accreditation is given hasn't even been worked out.

That would indicate to me that the "Free Flow of Skilled Labour" hasn't been fully implemented, in 2014, let alone 2012.

Thank you for making my point number one. It's amazing how little most people know about ASEAN. Maybe it's a technical thing like arguing over what makes a jet aircraft engine from Boeing better than an engine from a competitor? Maybe I should not be so critical of what people say about what is happening in ASEAN. For that I'm wrong. I apologize.

However, the AEC Blueprint is a pretty technical document that is easily misunderstood if a person does not have an international business background. And then again, most of the business instructors and academics at my university are clueless as well about ASEAN and the AEC. Maybe working knowledge of the WTO, international trade theory, and ASEAN would be the best combination.

About your comments....the scorecard reports on measures identified in the AEC Blueprint. There are 4 Phases to the AEC Blueprint. The document you pointed out only deals with Phases 1 and 2. We are now in Phase 4 of the AEC Blueprint. The measure from Phase II is fully implemented. No where in the AEC Scorecard that you pointed states that the "Free Flow of Skilled Labor" is fully implemented. However, it is schedule to be complete this year.

The "Free Flow of Skilled Labor" is based on visa arrangements between the ASEAN countries. See paraghraph A5 in the AEC Blueprint.

What you were talking about is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the AEC Integration process. The "Free Flow of Services" includes Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRA) for 8 service sectors. MRAs are covered by Article VII of the GATS agreement. Seven of the ASEAN MRAs are administered by the ASEAN economic ministers of the 10 ASEAN countries. The 8th, the MRA for tourism is handled by the tourism ministers of all 10 ASEAN countries.

For the Free Flow of Services...A service sector is defined by the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement for Trade in Services (GATS). Specifically, GATS W/120 universe of classification. There are 12 service sectors which contain sub-sectors containing other sub-sectors which leads to all the service jobs in the world. For example, teaching, banking, accounting, working in hotels, etc. are services covered by GATS. GATS identifies 4 modes of delivering a service to a consumer: (1) Cross border supply; Such as providing streaming internet service from the USA to Thailand such as GamePass from the NFL. (2) Consumption Abroad such as when a tourist from the USA comes to Thailand and stays in a Thai hotel. (3) Commercial presence is when a someone from one country invest in some form in another country such as a joint venture (FDI) (4) Presence of natural persons is when a person from one country comes to work in another country such as farangs working in Thai schools as English teachers.

I'm only familiar with the tourism aspect of the Mutual Recognition Arrangement for Tourism Professionals. (MRA-TP). The MRA-TP is administered in Thailand by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. They are also the organization that issues the accreditation in Thailand as well as verifies accreditation from other ASEAN countries for the 32 tourism certificates under the MRA-TP. Just because you're not aware of these Thai offices existing does not mean it hasn't happened yet. It only means you, and most everyone else, doesn't know about it.

I think it's amazing how little most people know about Asean. Most of the AEC objectives have already been met. While there is still work to do, compared to what has already been accomplished, there is not much left to do in accordance with the AEC Blueprint. Speaking of the AEC Blueprint, if there is an objective that people think should be a part of the AEC and it is not in the AEC Blueprint, then it is not part part of the Asean Integration process for the AEC.

I am not sure where you get your information from, but from what I understand, there are things that were due to be implemented in 2008 that still haven't been implemented, and they're still a long way from having all the laws and processes in place that they need for the start of AEC at the end of this year.

AEC Scorecard

I think it's amazing how little most people know about Asean. Most of the AEC objectives have already been met. While there is still work to do, compared to what has already been accomplished, there is not much left to do in accordance with the AEC Blueprint. Speaking of the AEC Blueprint, if there is an objective that people think should be a part of the AEC and it is not in the AEC Blueprint, then it is not part part of the Asean Integration process for the AEC.

Yes, it's quite funny to read all the comments on how the ASEAN countries aren't ready for free movement of labour and the removal of all trade protection in 2015, when those are not even AEC objectives.

There is no total removal of all trade protection. There are specific limits on what tariffs are getting eliminated. Paragraph A1.13 of the AEC Blueprint talks about this.

There is also no free movement of labor. There is a free flow in trade in services as defined by the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Agreement for Trade in Services (GATS). The schedules of specific commitments of the ASEAN Framework Agreement in Services (AFAS) covers what sectors have been liberalized by the countries that have eliminated them. Paragraph A2 of the AEC Blueprint talks about this.

So you are correct. The free movement of labor and the removal of ALL trade protection are not current objectives as defined by the AEC Blueprint for 2015. However, they are long run goals desired for post 2015 implementation.

I think it's amazing how little most people know about Asean. Most of the AEC objectives have already been met. While there is still work to do, compared to what has already been accomplished, there is not much left to do in accordance with the AEC Blueprint. Speaking of the AEC Blueprint, if there is an objective that people think should be a part of the AEC and it is not in the AEC Blueprint, then it is not part part of the Asean Integration process for the AEC.

You do understand these courses are for the Thai 15-18 year olds who are either too badly behaved or failed to attain the required grade average that would entitle them to continue government high school in years 4,5,6.

The Op never said he was attending the course. It is likely he could be the sponsor of a student who will study. It is good to ask here if he doesn't know.

Just to add a bit to what Chicog said, .......I have a car stereo with Bluetooth capability. When I connect my cell phone to my car stereo via Bluetooth, all the sound of my phone comes out of my car stereo speakers. My cell phone is an Android based phone so I installed an internet radio app and stream radio stations from the USA as I drive around Chiang Mai. It's definitely worth investing in this technology to listen to the music that you like while driving around town.

I appreciate the proactive observations; but l am not suggesting Masters from a Thai university and it's not that the value is diminished because it's from Thailand.

I could successfully argue the same about Australian universities (and extrapolating from there, most universities around the world). A Masters in Urban Planning was $46,000 three years ago; for every available job, there are more than 100 cookie cutter graduates.

To my mind it is about the relevance of the subject matter, hence sustainability. A certificate in that subject with a credit to other related subjects is my suggestion. A graduate will be able to instantly apply what they have learned or seek a Masters if they have the urge.

No market whatsoever in what you are suggesting. A 'certificate'? and what's that? Something of zero value validated at what level? You are possibly confusing with short courses at professional level which have a direct application.

I just took a free online globalization course with Georgetown University via EdX.org. It was a great course and I got a certificate for the course. There are plenty of great courses online that are free. For me, I'm attracted to this type of learning because it compliments my MBA degree. I learned a lot from this course and will likely take more courses like this in the future.

Don't confuse what you did (which IMHO adds little to a previously gained MBA) to the marketability of international courses and their relevance to employability. Also IMHO, if you have an MBA the courses which you should be following are professional qualifications maybe in accounting, not la-dah-globalisation which is likely a step back from doing an MBA....or maybe the MBA didn't get you on a decent enough ladder?

Most universities in Thailand have marketable international programs. Many are joint degree programs with overseas universities. For Thai students, these are great programs because the are in English and cover what they need to gain meaningful employment not only in Thailand but also in Asean.

For westerners it's a different story as labor restrictions often limit their opportunities. However, returning to their home country may improve their opportunities. Although, if the student was not a good student and learned very little then going back likely will not help either.

I appreciate the proactive observations; but l am not suggesting Masters from a Thai university and it's not that the value is diminished because it's from Thailand.

I could successfully argue the same about Australian universities (and extrapolating from there, most universities around the world). A Masters in Urban Planning was $46,000 three years ago; for every available job, there are more than 100 cookie cutter graduates.

To my mind it is about the relevance of the subject matter, hence sustainability. A certificate in that subject with a credit to other related subjects is my suggestion. A graduate will be able to instantly apply what they have learned or seek a Masters if they have the urge.

No market whatsoever in what you are suggesting. A 'certificate'? and what's that? Something of zero value validated at what level? You are possibly confusing with short courses at professional level which have a direct application.

I think to understand the AEC you need a degree in international business. It's complicated. It's an "economic" community so economic and business terminology was used when designing the AEC. It was designed by business experts and not politicians. This is why everyone is confused.

The 2008 AEC Blueprint (click here to download) is a road-map of objectives to the end goal of economic integration consisting of 4 main characteristics: (1) A single market and production base (2) A highly competitive economic region (3) A region of equitable economic development (4) A region fully integrated into the global economy.

It does not matter in the slightest amount what your definition of these characteristics are because ASEAN has defined them in the AEC Blueprint. It also does not matter what objectives you think ASEAN should include in order to reach economic integration because ASEAN has already listed them in the AEC Blueprint. Finally, it really doesn't matter if you believe or don't believe ASEAN will accomplish these objectives because the Action Points listed in the AEC Blueprint give ASEAN a way to measure itself and that alone determines the level of success or failure of the end goal of economic integration.

The characteristic that matters the most to people is the Single Market and Production Base. This particular characteristic has five core elements that impact people directly: (1) Free flow of goods (2) Free flow of services (3) Free flow of investment (4) Freer flow of capital (5) Free flow of skilled labor.

• Free flow of goods: This is pretty straight forward and deals with importing and exporting products in and out of all the ASEAN countries. It deals with tariffs, non-tariff barriers, rules of origin, trade facilitation, customs integration, and standards and technical barriers to trade.
• Free flow of services: This is extremely misunderstood by the politicians. Most associate it with 8 professions that can move freely between ASEAN countries. While this is part of it, it is not the entire story. Trade in services is governed by the ASEAN Framework Agreement in Services (AFAS) which is modeled after the General Agreement in Trade in Services (GATS) from the World Trade Organization (WTO). Countries trade one of twelve service sectors in which are 4 modes of supplying a service to a final consumer: (1) Cross-border supply (2) Consumption abroad (3) Commercial presence (4) Presence of natural persons. These 12 service sectors and 4 modes cover every job that foreigner can enter a country and get paid to do. This is the untold story that ASEAN politicians don't understand and are unable to explain to their citizens. When a country trades in services it means they are removing restrictions that prevent foreigners from entering the country and working. To date, hundreds of jobs across ASEAN have been liberalized in preparation for the AEC in 2015. ASEAN has posted all of the liberalization measures online free for anyone to download and review.
• Free flow of investment: This deals mostly with protecting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 5 production type industries (1) manufacturing (2) agriculture (3) fishery (4) forestry (5) mining and quarrying sectors as well as services incidental to these sectors.
• Freer flow of capital: This deals with capital markets across ASEAN. In this instance, capital refers to how business raise money to continue or expand their operations such as with stocks or bonds.
• Free flow of skilled labor: This has nothing to do with hiring high skilled workers but everything to do with entering another ASEAN country faster.

This information is what business need to know in order to be able to make decisions. For example, for most products, tariffs have been eliminated and now may be a good time to export to a city on the other side of a border where there is less competition and where the tariff free market makes shipping affordable. A different business may invite foreigners to bid on a joint venture opportunity in order to raise more capital to make improvements on plant and equipment needed to increase their competitiveness. Still others may want to invest in a neighboring ASEAN country with a wholly owned subsidiary or joint venture to help establish different supply chains in a new market. One thing to keep in mind, there are provisions in the trade agreements that allow foreign investment to bring in foreign labor as I mentioned above describing trade in services.

Based on the news story there will be new economic zones to attract more business. So if I was a factory owner producing a product this might mean a new competitor is moving into my market which I'm already competing in and I could lose my market share. Or, worse case scenario, the tax holiday that will be offered for foreign business to set up in these new economic zones may lower their cost of doing business and thus their prices of the products or services and this may put me out of business all together.

If I'm a factory owner and I want to lower my cost of doing business (because of new business competition) I may consider closing my business in my country and reopening it in the neighboring country in which the cost of doing business is considerably less. This means I would fire all my employees.

These are the 2015 realities facing all ASEAN countries. This is what people need to know.

I follow what you say......I think........since it is written down and available for review.

However, the point I was trying to make is that despite what is written in the Blueprint, what is happening in reality is that each country is protecting its own interests. So in fact, come implementation day, there won't be actually be free flow of anything.

Try buying a car in Malaysia for instance and driving it up to Thailand to use, without paying any Thai tax. Ok, that's a simplistic example, but every single country has looked at where there maybe some detrimental effect on them and has, or will, introduce an "opt out", or introduced sufficient bureaucratic nonsense to negate any supposed change.

Nope, I'd even take a bet that 1 year later, five years later, maybe ten years later, the Blueprint will still be there, but free flow of anything will remain a pipe dream.

Sorry to be negative and in any case it'll be interesting to see what changes, if anything.

I agree that for some things, countries need to rewrite some of their domestic regulations but this applies more to trade in services than trade in goods. In fact, as of 2010, duties were eliminated on 99.2% of tariff lines for ASEAN-6 (Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei) and the CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam) states have reduced tariffs to 0-5% for 97.52 of their tariff lines. To me, that sounds like it's flowing pretty well. I forgot to mention the AEC Blueprint comes with a timeline and ASEAN is doing pretty good on reaching their objectives on time.

For trade in services, each country liberalizes where they feel foreign labor can best benefit the country. Some countries, like Thailand, are liberalizing slower in some sectors. Other countries, like Cambodia have extremely liberal policies in most sectors. This is how trade in services works in the WTO and ASEAN is also following this framework. There are always restrictions on foreigners coming into a country. Even developed countries have restrictions so don't expect to have a border-less region in ASEAN. However, as I mentioned before, liberalization agreements need to be followed up with domestic changes to existing laws. This is where some ASEAN countries are lagging.

The use of the AEC Blueprint was designed to start in 2008 and ends in 2015. It wasn't designed to go past that. However, ASEAN is not turning out the lights and going home on December 31st. They are already working on post 2015 plans to integrate deeper. 2015 is only the end of the beginning.

I think to understand the AEC you need a degree in international business. It's complicated. It's an "economic" community so economic and business terminology was used when designing the AEC. It was designed by business experts and not politicians. This is why everyone is confused.

The 2008 AEC Blueprint (click here to download) is a road-map of objectives to the end goal of economic integration consisting of 4 main characteristics: (1) A single market and production base (2) A highly competitive economic region (3) A region of equitable economic development (4) A region fully integrated into the global economy.

It does not matter in the slightest amount what your definition of these characteristics are because ASEAN has defined them in the AEC Blueprint. It also does not matter what objectives you think ASEAN should include in order to reach economic integration because ASEAN has already listed them in the AEC Blueprint. Finally, it really doesn't matter if you believe or don't believe ASEAN will accomplish these objectives because the Action Points listed in the AEC Blueprint give ASEAN a way to measure itself and that alone determines the level of success or failure of the end goal of economic integration.

The characteristic that matters the most to people is the Single Market and Production Base. This particular characteristic has five core elements that impact people directly: (1) Free flow of goods (2) Free flow of services (3) Free flow of investment (4) Freer flow of capital (5) Free flow of skilled labor.

1. Free flow of goods: This is pretty straight forward and deals with importing and exporting products in and out of all the ASEAN countries. It deals with tariffs, non-tariff barriers, rules of origin, trade facilitation, customs integration, and standards and technical barriers to trade.
2. Free flow of services: This is extremely misunderstood by the politicians. Most associate it with 8 professions that can move freely between ASEAN countries. While this is part of it, it is not the entire story. Trade in services is governed by the ASEAN Framework Agreement in Services (AFAS) which is modeled after the General Agreement in Trade in Services (GATS) from the World Trade Organization (WTO). Countries trade one of twelve service sectors in which are 4 modes of supplying a service to a final consumer: (1) Cross-border supply (2) Consumption abroad (3) Commercial presence (4) Presence of natural persons. These 12 service sectors and 4 modes cover every job that foreigner can enter a country and get paid to do. This is the untold story that ASEAN politicians don't understand and are unable to explain to their citizens. When a country trades in services it means they are removing restrictions that prevent foreigners from entering the country and working. To date, hundreds of jobs across ASEAN have been liberalized in preparation for the AEC in 2015. ASEAN has posted all of the liberalization measures online free for anyone to download and review.
3. Free flow of investment: This deals mostly with protecting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 5 production type industries (1) manufacturing (2) agriculture (3) fishery (4) forestry (5) mining and quarrying sectors as well as services incidental to these sectors.
4. Freer flow of capital: This deals with capital markets across ASEAN. In this instance, capital refers to how business raise money to continue or expand their operations such as with stocks or bonds.
5. Free flow of skilled labor: This has nothing to do with hiring high skilled workers but everything to do with entering another ASEAN country faster.

This information is what business need to know in order to be able to make decisions. For example, for most products, tariffs have been eliminated and now may be a good time to export to a city on the other side of a border where there is less competition and where the tariff free market makes shipping affordable. A different business may invite foreigners to bid on a joint venture opportunity in order to raise more capital to make improvements on plant and equipment needed to increase their competitiveness. Still others may want to invest in a neighboring ASEAN country with a wholly owned subsidiary or joint venture to help establish different supply chains in a new market. One thing to keep in mind, there are provisions in the trade agreements that allow foreign investment to bring in foreign labor as I mentioned above describing trade in services.

Based on the news story there will be new economic zones to attract more business. So if I was a factory owner producing a product this might mean a new competitor is moving into my market which I'm already competing in and I could lose my market share. Or, worse case scenario, the tax holiday that will be offered for foreign business to set up in these new economic zones may lower their cost of doing business and thus their prices of the products or services and this may put me out of business all together.

If I'm a factory owner and I want to lower my cost of doing business (because of new business competition) I may consider closing my business in my country and reopening it in the neighboring country in which the cost of doing business is considerably less. This means I would fire all my employees.

These are the 2015 realities facing all ASEAN countries. This is what people need to know.

As long as they are paid a fair wage then it is a good idea. If the are forced to do it for free then it is like a subsidy that distorts free trade.

International MBA is a good degree for that. I think a TOEFL of 550 or IELTS 5.5 is ok for an MBA. A TOEFL 600 or IELTS 6.0 is better. There are Thai companies looking for English speaking Thai employees.