Longstaff

On 1/4/2017 at 1:01 PM, seancbk said:

 

 

Reference points 2 and 4.   

If I read your post correctly the company would only need to have 1 million in registered capital and this would not need to be proven as it would be opened by a Thai (point 2), then when I became a shareholder no proof of my capital would be needed (point 4)

I don't have anywhere near 2 million baht, but I could ask one of my Thai friends to assume 100% ownership in order to open the company then later on take control of the company (I do know I can only technically own 49%, but I've got wealthy Thai friends I trust who've said they'd hold shares on my behalf).

I wonder how long after the company has been formed they would allow a foreigner to become a shareholder?  Presumably immediately.

 

 

A Ltd Co needs a minimum number of shareholders (I think 3)

Share transfer can occur relatively quickly, as can a change to Director/s. I think sufficient time needs to elapse to allow shareholders to be informed and a resolution by them to be passed approving the changes. So, a week or so...Forms need to be filled in, in Thai, and fees paid for these changes at DBD.

I am unaware of a 'need' to register an overseas marriage in Thailand. I married my wife in NZ, had the certificate validated and stamped by the NZ Embassy in BKK, and the whole thing translated and stamped by a language school. On this basis I have a one year non-immigrant O Visa based on marriage to a Thai national.

We did look into the matter of registering the marriage in Thailand, but gave up under the weight of bureaucracy (and the need to drive from Chiang Mai to her home town 1,000km away to deal with the bureaucrats).

My bank account is with Kasikorn, and was no problem at all with my wife there and able to provide her ID and Tabian Baan. She did not have a K bank account. They do like photocopying my passport and now have a thick folder full of photocopies! Don't forget to take yours every time you need to discuss something with the bank.

Good luck.

Dont agree with violence or guns but...I recall the movie "Network" quote "I'm As Mad As Hell and I'm Not Gonna Take This Anymore!".vast majority of locals commuting to work in heavy traffic exhaust fume polluted air and temperatures 40°C just trying to make a living on low pay getting extorted by these guys for some imagined offence...

You have proof the police were shaking down the motorists, do you? Around my way there are frequent road blocks, mainly it seems for checking the license fee has been paid, and not once has anyone asked for a donation. It's called doing their job, that's all. Saying that someone is justified in pulling a gun because the weather is hot is pathetic.

Here in Chiang Mai there are daily roadblocks for motorcyclists, presumably because they are having a 'crackdown' on wearing helmets....seems to me they are doing their job and having some effect. Since motorcyclists represent the vast majority of road deaths they are the most obvious place to improve safety. The fact they are small and easy to target / manage on the roadside is a bonus. This is not to say the BiB should not be sorting out the buses, trucks and pickups full of workers; they clearly should. I've been stopped many times and never been asked for a back-hander; it's always been a ticket and off to pay the fine if I'm out without my license or forgotten to renew registration. I'd just like to see them putting more thought into where the roadblocks are, rather than creating a traffic hazard at busy intersections.

The poor cop was probably reaching for his ticket book not his side-arm. As others have said, Thailand has some serious firearm and attitude problems and this incident reflects that more than anything.

The tragedy in all of this, as usual, is that the BIB need to pose for the cameras themselves and display the suspects like a hunter poses with a trophy deer; in order to convince the public of what a good job they are doing. It's unprofessional, unnecessary, and suggests a rather pathetic need for recognition.

What deserves recognition and good reporting is Thailand's contribution to assisting other nations in apprehending suspects who are in hiding here; but all that is necessary is a short statement of facts by a single high ranking officer.

Most young kids can't afford a big bike, and they ride these little 125cc bikes like greased lightning anyway...

People that I know that can afford big bikes are usually older, have had a few bikes and are more careful.

...but I see his logic, and personally, I think it's in the right direction.

You should visit Chiang Mai. Our business is next door to the Ducati dealership. Nowhere in the world have I seen so many Ducati's being ridden (incompetently) by young people, and half of them have no licence plate.

This 'initiative' is hardly breaking the boundaries of original thinking, but like most countries reinventing the wheel is what Thailand seems to do.

'monitoring the situation'

Mate of mine took a transfer to be a sole-charge rural cop. Each day he had to fill in a day-book with a record of what he'd done, which presented something of a challenge as 'cruising around in the 4x4 having cups of tea with the locals' probably wouldn't cut it with HQ. I suggested he write 'busy monitoring the situation', which of course was what he was doing...and he did. I guess the difference there was that when the button was pressed he was there, on his own, and up to his elbows dealing with whatever was going down.

When thousands of residents are visiting hospitals because of smog related complaints I reckon the time for monitoring has passed...

In many other countries problems like this are solved at a national level by the requirement for operators to be licensed AND insured; and by health and safety legislation that requires operators to maintain a duty of care. Once this is enforced the insurance companies will do the rest of the work for you...one or two multi-million injury claims and they'll make sure every boat is seaworthy and every skipper is qualified before they'll insure them; those who can't pay the premiums are out of business. And the companies themselves make sure the customers follow instructions to the letter, because they know they'll suffer both insurance cost increases AND prosecution for failure in their duty of care to clients if there is an accident of this sort....but TIT....

Was up North last week taking the folks for a trip to Doi Chaang. Took the scenic route up route 1035 then across the ranges; fires burning everywhere, often along roadsides and no sign of anyone official dashing about trying to stop it. The hot air around these fires is matched only by the apparent hot air in meetings about the issue...It's my first year in Chiang Mai and I've never seen anything like it.

I am reminded of Occam's razor, or a simplification thereof, that the simplest solution is usually the best...

For 36 years i have been reminded of the need (living in three very different countries) to renew my motor oil at the correct time by way of a sticker on my windscreen placed by the mechanic who last did the job. Seems to me that the good folk at Boeing could pop a wee sticker on the emergency locator beacon when they install it so that future maintenance engineers know when to replace the batteries; particularly given the critical importance of the locator beacons given the multi-million cost of the aircraft and the scores of lives on board.

Placing reliance on a computerised system to manage battery maintenance is a classic example of over complicating a straightforward task...that failed.

Good job the perpetrator wasn't hiding under an umbrella!

My only experience here is of my wife being at the Bangkok Hosp in Hua Hin for 4 days. Every time I walked past the nurses station there was a large group all chattering away or playing on their phones; no sign of any work being done. For a private hospital the standard of care was poor compared to private hospitals back in N.Z. They were not attentive, did not anticipate needs, had to be asked to give my wife a wash and change the sheets, had to be repeatedly asked for pain medication. I've never pressed a call button so many times...back in N.Z. I've never pressed a call button once. If those nurses are stressed it sure aint work related!

A law to reduce bureaucracy.....an oxymoron if ever there was!

Two points:

Firstly, you don't make a prince a knight; a prince is well beyond knighthood by birthright. The traditional role of a night is to protect their lord / king / royal family.

Secondly, if there is a need or desire to acknowledge a particular royal for their commitment / achievement / whatever, then surely there are other ways to do so. In the good old days they erected a statue in your honour.

Crikey, the fun police are out in force today aren't they!

As a resident of Chiang Mai I've taken part in both the Loy Kratong and New Year celebrations along with tens of thousands of local Thais, visiting Thais and overseas tourists. These events are a huge, enjoyable and massively popular; in addition to being traditional. They are important to Thais and a huge draw-card for visitors.

There is a risk that needs to be managed in terms of aircraft. Last year Thai Airways rescheduled flights to manage this risk over the Loy Kratong period. The same could have happened at New Year; surely a more pragmatic solution? It's not as if these celebrations can't be planned for a year ahead...

As for the litter issue I think this is comparatively minor. The municipalities clear up the kratongs and presumably many of the 'dead' lanterns. Those that make it to the forest and natural places will rot away in no time, and as constructed of natural materials will decompose without impact. Even the thin wire frame for the burner will rust away quickly.

Cost / benefit...? It's a no-brainer; manage the risk, maintain tradition, enjoy these celebrations, and you fun police get some perspective and find something more important to worry about.

These farmers should have seen the writing on the wall; instead they avoid thinking about their own future and will now blame others for change that any fool can see coming. There is a global war against smoking and while Thailand lags behind many countries on this issue, it will eventually catch up. The world is a better place in those countries where you can now enjoy a beer, ride on a bus / train, go to a concert / movie etc without inhaling someone else's smoke and needing to wash all your clothes because they stink. Accept that a new reality is on its way and put your energy into researching new crops...the opium growers adapted to change, and tobacco growers elsewhere have been forced to adjust their land use. By all means Dear Leader put some resources into assisting the farmers to select something worthwhile to grow instead.

And to those who choose to smoke please do two things: Firstly pick up your own fag ends instead of dropping them in the soi outside my restaurant for me to pick up. And secondly make sure you take responsibility for ALL your own healthcare costs, wherever in the world you may be.

Would be good to see a photo....sounds more like some kit for electric fishing than a bomb. Would need to be a serious bit of ordinance to damage the French Embassy from half a kilometer. I thought fake bombs were cardboard boxes, all strapped up in gaffer tape, making a ticking sound...or round black objects with a sparkler sticking out of the top???

Firstly I applaud the initiative to improve safety of tourists undertaking aquatic activities with commercial operators. And if a wise head has worked out that this is cheaper and more efficient and gets the outcome quicker than employing officials to try and cajole operators into doing the right thing, then I applaud that too.

However, in the longer term initiatives like this shift responsibility for client safety away from the operator, and this is unwise. I am picturing the 900 horsepower power boats that serve the dive industry, guzzling in excess of a tonne of gasoline each and every day they operate. I think any business plan that handles such colossal daily expenses can easily accommodate the regular replacement of essential safety equipment. Ultimately regulation and education, with a regime of inspection and enforcement are necessary.

Some of these posts remind me of the Monty Python 'Four Yorkshiremen' sketch:

Cold is a relative thing; what's warm to an Inuit would be cold enough to kill most people. Same goes for heat; it's what you are used too, look at the Aborigines. Generally speaking people, like all animals, adapt to their environment and also modify their environment in order to survive. I don't know the history of the hill tribes, and I'm happy to be informed, but my assumption is they have experienced life in the hills for many generations.

This is not a disaster, the boxing day tsunami was a disaster; though it might be disastrous for some individuals.

Here in Chiang Mai it struggles up to 30 degrees each day and is a lovely time of year for a farang. Previously I would have been sweating cobs in a 30 degree heat wave back home, but now its a pleasant temperature. It's chilly at night here in the city, I'm wearing a jacket now on the motorbike, which means it must be a few degrees cooler still up in the hills.

Again, I don't know the history as it applies here; but a general observation would be that as nations develop indigenous people sometimes become dependent and seem to lose their ability to look after themselves. You see this in marginalised indigenous communities all over the world, many of whom have been displaced from their traditional lands and now lack the resources (farm land and forests) to fend for themselves. We also tend to measure their behaviour against our standards which is a little unfair; and too much to expect when they've been accelerated through a development process in decades rather than the centuries it took us to sort ourselves out. And lets not forget that in those nations we farang come from there is a percentage of the population looking for the same handouts one year after another, and displaying an ongoing inability to plan ahead, look after possessions, maintain property etc etc.

I noted the news item a few days ago about the difficulty some of these people have in gaining Thai ID and thus an education....not easy to pull yourself out of hardship in a self sufficient way without an education. I suspect that most of us writing on here, if we look back a couple of generations, have emerged from poor family histories because our parents generation prioritised and funded our education.

Before leaving the old country I donated all my electric heaters to charity thinking I'd never need them again; can't believe they've got a display of oil column heaters down at Global!

" V/Gov Somkiet, who gave investigating officers 15 days to find out which category the store was built under."

What? Officials from EIGHT departments, including the investigating officers presumably, all coordinated to all be on site at the same time, but nobody thought to take the documentation with them? What exactly were they going to inspect against if they didn't have the permit with them?

Maybe the building permit was issued in Chiang Rai and the investigating officer has to ride his bike there to go and check it?

I'm new to all of this, but live in CM and do the daily Russian Roulette on the roads. Most of the crash scenes I pass by on a weekly basis are completely unfathomable and mostly I think the drivers were probably texting on their phones or otherwise disengaged from the process of driving the car.

My wife had to do a full resit of her license recently because her old one had expired for too long. Now I understand it all, complete clarity...the 'examiner' doesn't even get in the car with you, let alone test you out on public roads, but as long as you can park between a couple of cones you're good to go!