Spilornis

Toyota has been working on the "famed" solid state battery for a long long time. They still have some huge technical obstacles to overcome unfortunately. It will give a range of around 1200 kms on a 10 minute charge The break through battery has not eventuated but it may

Multi year visas make more sense than one off. If you are going to vet people then it would be rare that they became "undesirable" within five years. India has a five year visa for US$80. China offers a ten year visa to Americans. Both are multi entry and have a maximum stay per entry cap

My favourite threads were the rubber farming and the pig raising. Hope they are finally seeing some rewards

How about removing all the vehicle paperwork Just pay for an insurance stamp and you're away instead of the multi step process

Agree but BKK has to improve its immigration and baggage delivery time to catch up with Changi where it's a slow arrival if you're not in a cab, bus or train within 15-20 minutes of your plane reaching its gate. Check in and immigration on leaving is also a breeze with everything fully automated. These things aside it offers far better value than Singapore for a stop off. The use of two airports while making sense may not help the hub concept

Wow.. I thought ....but it's just Chiang Mai via Taipei... not exactly earth shattering as I assume Eva already does it. Looking at international flights from Chiang Mai it seems well connected to the usual South East Asian hubs. Will be interesting to see if direct flights to India or the Middle East are introduced

The traditional AA model was multiple companies that allowed for maximum loan leverage and an IPO of each business. High interest rates and tougher lending covenants make that model a lot harder these days. Fare wise Scoot seems to have kept its fares lower on the long haul flights by comparison to AAX. Flying through Singapore can however be inconvenient and its relatively high airport charges mean the short intra SEA flights can often seem expensive

Good point Thais working in the UAE for example are tax free in the UAE on their earnings. This will tax those earnings when remitted. The flipside is that it will make it less attractive to work in such places. I assume the Thai Govt would know (or could easily ascertain) who these people are and take it from there

They (AAX and Jetstar IIRC) tried a Darwin hub for a few years but they couldn't make it work. If the Australian government had allowed foreign airlines the right to pick up passengers and take them to the Southern capitals and return it might have been a game changer. It also might have made much of Asia reachable with narrow body jets which would possibly result in opening up more destinations. Alas it seems very much off the cards these days

Computer matching is rather easy and cheap these days. It's massive and within countries the Tax authorities have been doing it for the last 50 years. The problem will be matching names and identifying numbers across jurisdictions. The good news is that it won't be all done at once and I think that running a match on activity in Thailand will be a relatively low priority for the main Western tax authorities

This information sharing system has been pushed by the US for years. As they have a world wide income taxing approach (as does Australia) it's easy revenue for them these days. How identities are matched between the various countries may be a little challenging but increasingly will become easier I'm sure.

Great suggestion...

Excellent suggestions particularly that from Brit Man Too. Gives you a source of income and flexibility should Thailand not work out. Interest on any mortgage and taxes need to be considered. Even if the rent is not enough for you to live on you might consider borrowing a small amount to live on Hasten slowly is my advice

Freight and HSR are two different products. Rail makes sense but there's few places in the world where it makes money. Coal and ore railways over long distances work well. Same to some extent for grain. Hard to compete with ships simply because of the cost of maintaining the tracks. HSR is way more complex and is driven by passenger traffic. Maximum distance is perhaps 4 hours before planes take over on the basis of cost and comfort. Passenger rail from Singapore to Paris is a wonderful dream. I like it but..............

Trans shipment and oil refining can be big money. The oil pipeline probably made sense 20 or thirty years ago. Bulk oil probably only has another 10 odd years as does mass scale refineries. Oil trans shipment only requires a breakwater and pumping equipment plus of course the pipeline itself Just can't see the financial case for building two trans shipment ports for containers plus the rail infrastructure. They floated the same idea for a port and rail on Malaysia's East Coast about five years ago. Never heard of again

China has changed to being once again an inward looking country. Public servants (even teachers) now need permission to leave the country and are being limited by time and destination. There is a strong push to reduce foreign interaction. The article below gives some insight into the reasons but you have to wonder how pervasive this move will be. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-tightens-curbs-on-foreign-travel-by-bankers-state-workers

This is an excellent point. Not sure of numbers but I assume there are many Thais working in areas such as the UAE, international shipping and offshore mining that will be taxed for the first time. Malaysia has foreshadowed a similar tax regime which would impact significantly on the many Malaysians working in Singapore. One difficulty I foresee is compliance. In Malaysia at least very few people are required to pay income tax (wages too low) so there is an absence of habit of paying taxes.

Agree... you actually want to retain your Australian tax residency so you can take advantage of the very generous tax free threshold. Think about putting some into shares with franked dividends. You'll get a refund each year. It's not hard to retain residency... super fund, bank account, etc all help. The 180 day test is largely a red herring when it comes to residency. All it does is gives Thailand a right to tax you as well. Depends on their laws as to whether you are taxed

This is known in the Chinese media as the suitcase trade. It used to be enormous between HK and the mainland. Post the pandemic it has almost disappeared as the goods commonly carried across the border (perfume etc) were often cheaper on the mainland than in HK. I wonder if the same has happened with relative prices between Thailand and China. On a more general note I don't understand these short term visa changes. Why five months only. Change the rules and if it doesn't work change them back. Separately, foreign tourism into China is almost non existent but I doubt they will change their archaic visa system. ( I hate paperwork for genuine tourism.)

The oil pipeline might make sense as a standalone project but the port facilities at either end would be expensive. Might work if ships could stand offshore and disgorge the oil into offshore piping buoys. You'd want to have strong environmental controls but you might get away with a series of breakwater complexes. Can't see the rail or road working simply because of the cost and infrastructure not to mention the double handling. The Chinese funded east-west railway in Malaysia was touted as being a container route. Who knows if it will work

90 days makes sense and brings Thailand into line with Malaysia, India and Vietnam among others. Indonesia are allowing 60 day visas (the standard VoA is still 30 days). Visa exempt or as others call it visa waiver is the way to go. Just reduce the paperwork and make it easy. Then for the e gates

India has banned the export of rice and Vietnam has announced its intention to drastically reduce rice production by 44% on the basis that the product is too water intensive. It's an emotive product due to its place in the history of many countries especially Japan. Will be interesting to see how each country adapts

They took a big hit but are now ramping up staff etc. The estimate is mid 2024 things will be back to pre covid level. Internal tourism/flights to places like Hainan is booming. Thailand being close to China should start to see an impact by September is my guess

Do they still hold that monopoly. Twenty years ago I can remember asking my travel agent why the Bangkok to Samui return flight cost was close to my Australia-Bangkok flight cost.

When India demonitised its currency the only way you could get value for notes over 500 rupees(US$7) was to open a bank account and deposit your notes. Deposits over 10k rupees or thereabouts got notified to the taxman. Within hours there was a cottage industry providing individuals willing to open a bank account in their name into which you could put the money and then withdraw it in nice clean notes. No one in power in India to my knowledge ever challenged the role of the banks in this charade