Increasingly, entrepreneurs are targeting Thailand, but can it overtake Singapore as a global startup hub?

[Pilotman]

56 minutes ago, Chang_paarp said:

I'll give you an example.

 

Met a man who was part of a BOI company that were investing just under 100 million Baht to open a car parts factory. They had the funds all worked out and sitting an account in home country and had a "recommended" lawyer to guide them through the maze.

They needed to open a Thai company to operate the local factory. Lawyer starts the paperwork. Time to come up with the registered capital (10 mil Baht or so) to make the company. OK will need to transfer it to the company bank account.

Off to the bank... Cannot open bank account without company. 

Back to the company registration office, cannot register company without registered capital.

Under home country laws cannot transfer capital without company controlled by parent company. Remember Thailand does not have laws covering escrow accounts, the bank deposits are not protected by Thai law either.

This goes around a couple of times involving several reams of paperwork with no one  willing to work with one another or the investor, they ended up telling the BOI they were not able to invest in Thailand, and all of a sudden the problems went away. 

That was the start of the petty bureaucracy. Every copy of a document has to be signed by the director and so on, it just goes on. The gentleman I spoke with said he would have waived the tax holiday the BOI investment gave them and gone elsewhere if he had known the degree of pettiness he was dealing with on daily basis.

I just cannot imagine any savey business person with any brains, who doesn't already live here, investing in this country.  There are just too many better options out there. 

[chama]

17 hours ago, Chang_paarp said:

This might attract some until they encounter the petty mindless bureaucracy, corruption and Thainess.

....and the junta's suppressive ordinances as well as the general populations opinion that Westerners are little more than ATM's. 

[batata]

14 hours ago, Chang_paarp said:

I'll give you an example.

 

Met a man who was part of a BOI company that were investing just under 100 million Baht to open a car parts factory. They had the funds all worked out and sitting an account in home country and had a "recommended" lawyer to guide them through the maze.

They needed to open a Thai company to operate the local factory. Lawyer starts the paperwork. Time to come up with the registered capital (10 mil Baht or so) to make the company. OK will need to transfer it to the company bank account.

Off to the bank... Cannot open bank account without company. 

Back to the company registration office, cannot register company without registered capital.

Under home country laws cannot transfer capital without company controlled by parent company. Remember Thailand does not have laws covering escrow accounts, the bank deposits are not protected by Thai law either.

This goes around a couple of times involving several reams of paperwork with no one  willing to work with one another or the investor, they ended up telling the BOI they were not able to invest in Thailand, and all of a sudden the problems went away. 

That was the start of the petty bureaucracy. Every copy of a document has to be signed by the director and so on, it just goes on. The gentleman I spoke with said he would have waived the tax holiday the BOI investment gave them and gone elsewhere if he had known the degree of pettiness he was dealing with on daily basis.

that was my point, well informed investors,... guess this one was not well informed enough

[batata]

14 hours ago, madmen said:

Gun foot SHOOT !!!

 

singapore is a multiracial and multicultural country withethnic Chinese (76.2% of the citizen population), Malays (15.0%), and ethnic Indians (7.4%) making up the majority of the population. There are also Eurasians in Singapore. The Malays are recognised as the indigenous community.

to help you understand the context feel free to read post #22... FYI, some posts are not used for slow brainers

[ThomasThBKK]

On 5/10/2019 at 9:17 PM, madmen said:

Gun foot SHOOT !!!

 

singapore is a multiracial and multicultural country withethnic Chinese (76.2% of the citizen population), Malays (15.0%), and ethnic Indians (7.4%) making up the majority of the population. There are also Eurasians in Singapore. The Malays are recognised as the indigenous community.

So what? Who gives a <deleted> where people came from?

 

Most americans are German, Italian, NL, Spanish, Irish descents - no one today would call them german tho. 

 

Every country got settled somehow, it all started in africa i guess. What kind of BS argument is that? 

 

Fact is SG is a banking and business hub, Thailand isn't.