Wp&social security

Hi
Just had a call from a friend of mine in the UK.
He has been married to a Thai lady for 5 years.He wants to come here and set up a company,importing goods from China to sell online to Thailand.He says he understands that he needs 2-4 Thai shareholders/staff on the books and that his wife can possibly act as one of them.He will obtain an non-immigrant (o) visa,and extend with 400k + in the bank that has been seasoned for years.
What he's concerned about is that he has been told that he as the owner of the company is not entitled to pay into the Thai social security.First of all is this correct and secondly,what would his options be?I honestly don't understand this,because I have a friend in Pattaya,who owns a company with a wp that claims to have been paying into the system for over 2 years simply by registering. From what I can gather, my friend appears to be concerned about medical expenses,should he become sick.He obviously has no concerns in this regard about his wife,as she's Thai.
My friend has just turned 50 if that has any bearing on the matter.I as always have scoured the net but am unable to find any info for his particular query,so any information would be appreciated,I can then mail him the link to this topic.