Sir Dude

Sansiri took the blue pill.

I guess it's mainly aimed at Chinese who will be happy to move money out of China for property. Trouble is, no guarantees that things or laws don't do a 180 one morning at short notice and the goal posts shift... probably not in your favour. It would give me the sh!ts having that sort of money "invested" here as a non Thai. No way Jose. Since when has anything not changed for 10 years here? Good luck with that visa.

When they start making statements like this for no reason, then something is probably wrong... just an attempt to shore up sentiment, but won't fly. I mean, why just come out with that unsolicited comment? I agree with others above, the baht movements recently could easily be interpreted as it was losing value/under attack and they tried buying baht/shoring it up, but doesn't seem to be working much, hence the pause, then minor strengthening of the baht, and now weakening again a bit. Could be in for a roller-coaster as the BoT will try to intervene as they will have orders to not let it slide too far as some small sections of society as won't get as much bang for their buck. All smells of manipulation, but not in the standard way of making it cheaper to help exports... rather an attempt to keep it strong.

They were fired and no-one said anything because Prayut's handlers gave it the nod. Even Toady didn't say anything.

These places are too corrupt and incompetent to have so much data on record.

The problem is that you just can't believe what these people are saying. Whether it's due to self-interests or being leaned on from certain entities for the good of an agenda... the fact remains that there is a huge truth and believability deficit. It would not be unreasonable to think that the above is just the financial version of TAT's deluded announcements. How do we know the difference when we are all (Thais and foreigners) so suspect of such officialdom? Sentiment and confidence are key, that's true... but many many people aren't stupid and will see it for what it really is. 

Thailand is a cool country in so many ways, but I'll never truly come to grips with the generic shameless lies that are intertwined into the fabric and corners of everything for the short-term benefit of whoever is espousing them.

If you are going to have your money over here in a bank, then one of the best would probably be the SCB as it's the first bank here in Thailand, with the royal seal plus a certain vested interest owns like 30% of the shares... highly unlikely that the SCB will be allowed to fail under any curcumstances.

As for the 1 million limit, it is derisory really and does not inspire confidence. Although, as a foreigner, I'd say that people should only be really bringing over here what you need to for the short-term future as so many things can do a 180 at a moments notice... there is a reason the often repeated adage about only having/investing here what you can walk away from, exists.

If you are retired or have capital as a foreigner and haven't (which obviously you should never do) severed your financial ties to your home country, then you probaly should be having most of your wealth invested in something like an index/EFT fund (tracking the S&P 500 like Vanguard etc.) and maybe a portion of the total as slush money to move around and do as you want with... maybe 75% to 25% or something like that. Guess it depends on your risk tolerance levels and what you can or cannot squander.

As a large investor, then I could probaly come up with much better ideas for destination countries than Thailand for bigger capital. If on that level, we could always canvass the likes of Carlsberg, Pepsi or Australian mining companies for their opinions.

Thailand needs to understand that sentiment and confidence are key and you get those by civilian government, strengthening the rule of law, and treating all equally before it, foreigner or Thai, rich or poor. As it stands, I'm quite happy to let my investments in the West rack-up and roll-over, and then moving over what I need to live comforably through Transferwise.

The elite must have spent enough overseas and acquired sufficient foreign currency... time to bring it all home and swallow up even more assets in Thailand as the time is ripe for preditory cheap aquisitions and become even richer. This obviously requires a change in the exchange rate to their favour. If they do this now, then they will be set just right for when the pandemic ends and the recovery starts. Rinse & repeat.

What they announce and what actually happens is wildly different here on most fronts... forgive me being a cynic.

Pretty bad when they say that foreigners in the provinces are going to get the Sinovac, which isn't approved in the West, when the EU, UK, and US etc. have been donating the better quality mRNA plus AZ ones to Thailand for free... bit of a joke really. I bet the donated shots all end up in the Amart's secret stash.

The truth is an elusive and often ugly concept. Whatever it actually is on this and many other things, I'm pretty sure we aren't being told it. That seems to be par-for-the-course these days, lies and more lies just to keep people at home and placated that all is well.

If you are over 40, then it looks like a good strategy is probably to take the AZ now and then do a Moderna later as a booster early-mid next year. That way, it'll keep you out of hospital in the near term and meet the Stasi vaccine rules/pass stuff here (especially when immigration eventually get round to tying it to visa renewal) and then the Moderna should OK you for any international travel later.

Seems there isn't a problem to mix vaccines and then you'll have protection from both types of vaccine... viral vector and MRNA.

Maybe not perfect, but a pragmatic compromise for the current situation here... unless you are happy to flee and then do all the headaches to get back in.

I can imagine the scene, reminds me of Dennis Farina talking to Vinnie Jones in the film Snatch... "Look in the parrot" and "Open him up".

8 hours ago, webfact said:

The operator CP All (CPALL) said it will cut prices by up to 50 per cent on essential consumer goods, including IT products, from July to encourage household spending in the second half of the year.

So, not to save people money or help out with folks making ends meet at a difficult time and thus give CP a much needed image boost. Very poor choice of words and a change in personel at the PR department would be a good idea as an obvious positive spin opportunity glaring missed in spectacular fashion with that one.

Doesn't really surprise me this story, tinpot hat governor for sure down there.

Problem here for expats (or others for that matter) is that it's not beyond the realms of possibility that if you want to travel in the future to, say the US or Europe, then one of the conditions may be that you need to have had an approved vaccine by the destination country. All well and good if it's Moderna/AstraZeneca/Pfizer etc. you've had but Sinovac probably won't cut it as I doubt it'll be approved by lots of Western countries for reasons of not performing well to the political.

As the only vaccine available at the moment here in Thailand is the Sinovac one, unless you have access to the government's secret stash of Pfizer for the rich elite family types, then probably better to hold up and wait-it-out till other vaccine options turn up in private hospitals.

They shouldn't but they will and as far as foreigners are concerned, we should all be ready for it becoming a condition of visa approval/renewal in the not so distant future. It's coming, for sure.