Mike Lister

Er, no, that's not what I said and no, it's not what I intended either! International tourism is around 12% of GDP, Customs or Goods Exports are about 58% of GDP. If salvation is coming from anywhere, it's from a combination of things, those two plus domestic tourism which is a further 9% of GDP.

Kiatnakin Phatra Bank for one, Krungthai Zmico Securities for two, UOBAM for three....most offer nominee accounts as I recall. https://www.asktraders.com/learn-to-trade/stock-trading/us-stocks-from-thailand/

Every doctor who graduates in Thailand must spend a minimum of three years working in government hospitals or repay 400k to cover the cost of their training. There is a shortage of doctors in government hospitals, only about 50% remain in the national system whilst the remainder work outside of it. This results in a doctor patient ratio of 1:2,000 whereas the global ratio is 3:1,000. This results in many new doctors gaining huge amounts of experience in a short period of time and then moving into the private sector to increase their income. Many don't, many become doctors and remain in the state system because they want to contribute to health care for the general population rather than those patients who can afford to pay. Yet others split their time between both government, private hospitals and their own clinic. Today, there is an oversupply of doctors in the private sector with each private hospital listing over 300 specialists' that are available for consultation, if required, in the meantime these doctors continue their work in the government system or at their own clinic. This doesn't mean that each private hospital has 300 specialists on staff, it simply means the 300 have privileges' at that private hospital which has a much smaller core staff that are actual hospital employees. In a previous life I worked for Mt Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach, in yet another life I spent considerable time inside the medical system in the north. In cities that have medical training facilities such as CMU, the picture becomes more complicated since the university hospitals tend to be the center of excellence, rather than the District Hospital. Outside of those places, the District or Category A Hospitals is where the more complicated cases end up, because they are better equipped and have the best doctors and that is where the best doctors want to work within the government system. I was talking with an Orthopedic Surgeon last week, he has worked in the nearby District Hospital for 35 years, plus he has his own clinic which is excellent. I had just been advised to have a discectomy by a doctor at a private hospital, that was his single proposal to me, take it or leave it. The District Hospital doctor said that surgery was the very last option, after trying a number of different approaches including meds and therapy, 9 out of 10 will resolve themselves over time. He reaffirmed that the mindset was totally different between private sector and public sector doctors, one primarily wants money, the other primarily wants to heal patients.

Try adding a few more words so that not only you understand what you're trying to say.

Perhaps you can rewrite your post in English?

Onshore brokers are not cheap, plus, there's the currency exchange aspect. Better to go with a UK or US broker such as HL, it's cheaper, lower risk and greater choice.

I was always referring to larger government hospitals (District/Regional) where the more talented doctors who want to practise medicine, rather than just make money, are employed for at least part of their working week. Medical excellence doesn't require clarification! Go look at the doctors pages on any private hospital web site, these are the specialists that are available for consultation for a fee. Where do you think they work when they are waiting to be called for a private consultation!

On that basis, so is the Red Cross!

International Tourism is an exported Service, within Goods and Services, G&S did not decline to 21% of GDP in 2020. https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp

You appear not to understand what TAT stands for or what it is, TAT doesn't have responsibility for any of the things you mention in your post! TAT is the Tourist Authority of Thailand, it is a marketing function so yes, TAT only thinks about tourist numbers that create revenue, that's their job. It does not prevent people from expressing their views, neither does it get involved in freedom of expression issues. It also does not set the rules for expats and retirees, permanent residency and citizenship.

I agree, that's a very possible scenario but I like to think with all the data that is out there, Jerome will do a better job this time around than the Fed has done in the past.

JP Morgan is forecasting a synchronised global slowdown next year yet equities markets are forecasting above average growth with the S&P and the Dow both hitting record highs this month.

Many in this thread seem unable to separate the realities of the Thai economy from the things about Thailand that they don't personally like and from many of the old bar stool stories that have persisted for years. Of course, bar girls and semi hidden prostitution is not a good picture and certainly, corruption is a major issue that must be dealt with. Yes, the education system could be better and yes, there is a serious lack of external competition plus quality in many areas is poor. But none of those things are serious negative impacts on the Thai economy and only detract from the fact that in 2019, Thailand reached a year on year record of 39 million tourists and if covid had not come along, that number would be far higher today. The fact that covid did come along means that global recovery has been slow but today, international arrivals are back to almost three quarters of their previous peak. Exports this year posted the third highest monthly export amounts ever, October was USD 25.5 bill. and that's even with the Chinese economy way below par. Government borrowings are still only 58% of GDP, that's ridiculously low by comparison and even the IMF has urged Thailand to increase deficit spending to increase infrastructure build out. It's worth noting that government debt today is almost exactly what it was 25 years ago! (we're not talking about household or consumer debt, that is not directly relevant). As for the Baht being manipulated: that old chestnut has been done to death and only gets regurgitated by die in the wool lifelong conspiracy theorists, it's time to let it go! Sure, other countries in the region are doing better in some areas but if you set aside your personal biases for a moment and look at the state of the Thai economy objectively, you'll finally realise that it might not be as good as some in government want it to be but it's actually in pretty good shape. https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/exports

I think it's an excellent suggestion, I would support that.

There are lots of Zebra in the UK. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36356363 And, allegedly, there are more zebra in Thailand than in Africa. https://www.richardbarrow.com/2012/08/does-thailand-really-have-more-zebras-than-africa/ And black concrete is not uncommon. https://coolhunting.com/design/understanding-black-concrete/#:~:text=While rare%2C black concrete can,carbon black can be used. Finally, a zebra crossing is not the same as a crosswalk, a zebra crossing is distinguished by belisha beacons, one on each end.

Yes I agree that Malaysians have long been the number one visitors. I also suspect that anecdotal evidence of what one person sees is very unreliable since most people can't always distinguish between nationals from a large range of countries in Asia, Malaysia. Japan, China etc.

I don't believe there was ever a year when more Western tourists visited Thailand than Asian tourists. I was looking for a chart that I posted recently on this but I can't find it yet. It shows the ratio of tourists by continent, all the way back to 1995. The number of European and US tourists has been very flat for decades whilst Asian visitors have increased massively, year of year.

Thailand is and always has been a destination for Asians, western tourists are very much in the minority. Why concentrate of trying to attract westerners when airfares are high and western economies are in the doldrums.

Be extremely careful of the durrency aspect, the Kip is very unstable, it's almost worthless and is not freely convertible.

Nonsense! Government hospitals are funded by Government, from tax revenue and from insurance policies operated by the government, as such they are not for profit.

The initial major symptoms are very high temperature and a significant loss of energy, severe headache followed by muscle ache. The high temperature around 40 degrees is enough to tell you something is seriously wrong.

It seems he's in advance state of haemorrhagic fever, which is why they want to intubate him. Once again, health care in the smaller hospitals can be poor, especially the ones that are more remote. Care however in the larger hospitals is excellent. I just spent 5 days in a university hospital, the care, facilities and service was as good as any where in the world, it was first rate.

I'm very very sceptical that any bank would do that, it would be almost impossible to hide fro bank auditors and BOT plus it could mean loss of their banking license.

Your friend made a pretty basic mistake, it appears he did no research whatsoever into the country or the financial rules et al, ouch.

Poster @stat will know, he's a CRS expert.