Foreign talents encouraged to apply for newly-launched SMART Visa

[hansnl]

13 hours ago, coulson said:

And then 

I think they meant effluent......and reckon they have enough already.

 

And about the wellness part, I did some comparing, the Thai private hospitals are slowly getting too expensive.

Greedy......

[lamyai3]

6 hours ago, davehowden said:

They meant EFFLUENT.

The effluent visa involves brown envelopes. 

[Mickmouse1]

I wonder if my Talent is applicable? ?Why Should a highly skilled Talent goes to LOS instead of Singapore? ?

[PAIBKK]

I've trained several "experts" here in Thailand. They came in my company all having a masters degree but could do $#!t. We're in software development.

 

If it goes further than copy and paste.... and it needs real development, Thai can't do it...

On the university they won't learn anything but little basic languages like html, php, java, sql but mostly where they could find and use the the buttons <Ctrl><A>, <Ctrl><C>, <Ctrl><V> & <Ctrl><F>. Their starting salary was 25,000.- THB. After 4 months of "training" they all wanted a raise because they could start working for a Thai company and getting paid double. 

 

Yesterday, I was at a customer and there was a university graduate with a masters degree working on a project. My customer asked me to help her out as she really didn't know what she was doing. She could not even write a modification in xml because she didn't know where the "library" could be found... And that's getting 90k per month during the project. A complete joke !!!

 

This is the file I wrote in 3 minutes where she was working 4 days on getting rid of the basic 2 decimals in front of the gram sign when shipping out goods...
 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<modification>    
    <name>Zero decimals for OC 2.x</name>
    <code>zero_decimals</code>
    <version>1.1</version>
    <date>2018.01.25</date>
    <author>Fred for PAIBKK.com</author>

  <!--System > Library starts-->
    <file path="system/library/weight.php">        
        <operation error="log">
            <search><![CDATA[
                $this->config = $registry->get('config');
            ]]></search>
            <add position="after"><![CDATA[
                $this->language = $registry->get('language');
            ]]></add>
        </operation>
        <operation error="log">
            <search><![CDATA[
                return number_format($value, 2, $decimal_point, $thousand_point) . $this->weights[$weight_class_id]['unit'];
            ]]></search>
            <add position="replace"><![CDATA[
                $decimal_point = $this->language->get('decimal_point');
                $thousand_point = $this->language->get('thousand_point');
                return number_format($value, 0, $decimal_point, $thousand_point) . $this->weights[$weight_class_id]['unit'];
            ]]></add>
        </operation>
        <operation error="log">
            <search><![CDATA[
                return number_format($value, 2, $decimal_point, $thousand_point);
            ]]></search>
            <add position="replace"><![CDATA[
                $decimal_point = $this->language->get('decimal_point');
                $thousand_point = $this->language->get('thousand_point');
                return number_format($value, 0, $decimal_point, $thousand_point);
            ]]></add>
        </operation>
    </file>
  <!--System > Library ends-->

</modification>

 

Once again IT in Thailand is a complete joke !!!

Edited January 26, 2018 by PAIBKK

[seancbk]

20 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Is it just me, or are there others who have never heard the term "S-Curve" industries before???

 

When I did a Google search on the term, pretty much everything that popped back was in relation to Thailand, mostly just recently in connection with the visas scheme.

 

But it seems a curious use of a term, since I'm guessing the average layman (Thai or farang) has no idea what the term actually means.

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Where-does-Thailand-stand-on-the-S-curve-30275107.html

 

 

 

The S-curve is the classic adoption curve applied to the advent of new technologies.

As a percentage of the population, adoption looks like a lag phase where the technology is utilized by the innovators of said technology, followed by an early adoption phase led by people who often take risks in order to be the first movers in a space. After the early adopter phase (~16% of the population is now participating), there comes a great "tipping point" where the wide use of the technology seems inevitable.

The tipping point gives rise to the "Early Majority" joining in on the fun, followed by the late majority and, finally, the holdouts who allow the top of the S to asymptotically approach total adoption. The curve, as a factor of time and adoption, looks sort of like the following:

 

This curve correlates nicely with adoption of some of the greatest technological innovations in our recent history:
 

 

Some important things to note is that this is just U.S. adoption. Much of the world lagged behind the U.S. in the consumer appliance boom of the 1900s. All of these curves, however steep, do follow the same S-curve trend fairly nicely. 

[eisfeld]

With a minimum salary of 200k THB per month (exclusive other benefits!), you are looking at a *minimum* personal income tax of 458k THB for a single without children. That's a bit over 19%. The more you will earn, the higher this tax will be. High earners can easily run into 25-30%.

 

As a comparison:

 

Hong Kong: 15% flat

Singapore: a bit over 5% at 200k THB, progressive but you will most likely stay under 10% and very rarely hit 15% for high earners.

 

 

The government needs to understand that highly skilled persons are not only the ones who earn high salaries but also the ones that are smart when it comes to evaluating how much they have to pay in taxes and what benefits they get from the country.

 

The SMART visa brings the benefit of not needing a work permit. That's nice until one considers that in order to apply for permanent residency you in most cases need to have had a work permit. Not to mention that PR holders in Thailand still need to apply for work permits in most cases, have to get a re-entry permit before leaving the country and still can't own land. Highly skilled people want to build a future for themselves. If you pay a lot of taxes, you also want to get a lot of benefits.

 

So, it seems there is still plenty of way to go before we can talk about real competitiveness. It's a step in the right direction though.

 

 

Also I am not sure what the purpose of the SMART-E visa is when everyone who would qualify for it, would also qualify for the -T visa which has lower requirements and more benefits (children don't need a work permit).

[CantSpell]

22 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

Affluent is an industry?

Medical Hub does seem affluent as well as an industry 

[Thian]

10 hours ago, Cadbury said:

As they proudly say in their cartoon promo drawing.

"Taking Thailand to New Heights with Foreign Talents and Technology"

This is nothing more than admission that their own education system is a failure.

Maybe all those Indian IT experts that PM Prayut is aiming to import will qualify for Smart Visa and put many non-smart Thai IT dummies out of a job.

 

Sure they will but on the other hand the Indians speak good english so might attract foreign investors to Thailand.

 

I know a lot of high educated thai IT experts but they even can't speak english, nothing at all, can't even say hello but when their phone rings they suddenly can say it.

[Thian]

I just read that Holland is also going to attract 10.000 specialists in the same sectors. They want them from the UK and so...

 

For sure they get a higher salary there and also a more easy live at high standards. I wonder if they want to live in a smoggy city where they even can't order food in a restaurant or speak to a taxidriver.

[PAIBKK]

Smart people won't come to Thailand !!!
They can earn way more in the Western World than in a 3rd world country.

[jabis]

18 hours ago, Thian said:

Sure they will but on the other hand the Indians speak good english so might attract foreign investors to Thailand.

 

I know a lot of high educated thai IT experts but they even can't speak english, nothing at all, can't even say hello but when their phone rings they suddenly can say it.

I sure don't know too many IT experts in India making 5000€ (200000thb a month, or 395085 Indian rupee), do you? :)

Edited January 27, 2018 by jabis
Added rupees to equation

[DrTuner]

S-curve as in passengers are flown off in both directions under the gentle guidance of the top Somchai?

[shady86]

Thailand are slowly losing its competitiveness just like Malaysia. It's labor cost keep rising and factories are starting to move out to neighbors like Cambodia and Vietnam. To attract top talents, only visa priveleges don't help at all. English proficiency is among the poorest in South East Asia and this doesn't help at all to develop S Curve industry. The automotive industry is surviving as production hub but it will start to shrink once the Japanese found the next hub for relocation.

[dbrenn]

Basically, they mean anyone who's got lots of cash.

[impulse]

On 1/25/2018 at 8:06 PM, shady86 said:

How about local pricing priveleges and no double pricing discrimination? All visa holders paying tax should be entitled too.

 

If you're irritated or worried about paying an extra $5-10 to get in somewhere, you're not their target demographic.