Hello Team.

It was reported in the press this week that the British Embassy was represented at a meeting to discuss the proposals for a new tram system in Pattaya. What was the reason for your attendance? Is it with a view to the UK helping to finance the project or have UK companies expressed an interest in bidding for the work? Or some other reason? Please advise.

Hmm. It wasn't the Consular team - I'll ask our colleagues elsewhere in the Embassy and get back to you. 

A post has been removed.

I spoke to colleagues in the Department of International Trade. They tell me they attended the Pattaya monorail market sounding event last week. Their purpose was to understand the project in greater detail, come into contact with key stakeholders and more importantly identify whether there may be opportunities for UK engineering , design and or architecture firms to win contracts linked to this particular project. Infrastructure is one of several key sectors our DIT colleagues focus on in support of UK businesses and Thai investors

6 hours ago, British Consular Team said:

I spoke to colleagues in the Department of International Trade. They tell me they attended the Pattaya monorail market sounding event last week. Their purpose was to understand the project in greater detail, come into contact with key stakeholders and more importantly identify whether there may be opportunities for UK engineering , design and or architecture firms to win contracts linked to this particular project. Infrastructure is one of several key sectors our DIT colleagues focus on in support of UK businesses and Thai investors

Thank you for your reply. I did not initially grasp the difference between consular and embassy personnel's duties, so I appreciate you speaking to the embassy staff about my question.

Before retiring to Thailand I worked for a big UK construction company who do this type of work amongst many other things. I know they used to have an office in Bangkok but closed it down several years ago. Winning work here was apparently a fraught process and the introduction of strict rules about governance in the UK essentially made it unviable to engage in bidding/tendering any more.

Thanks again.

As this question has been answered this topic is now closed.