Call for flexible visas to boost the economy as exports, output and business confidence falters

[webfact]

The Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), Kriengkrai Thiennukul, warned that business confidence dipped in December 2022. This was the first time in seven months. It comes as the Secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), Danucha Pichayanan, called for more flexible visas to make it more attractive and easier for foreign tourists to come and stay in Thailand.

 

by Joseph O' Connor

Downturn in exports and manufacturing is filtering into the wider economy while the recovery of the foreign tourism industry is still a slow and ongoing process with one Thai bank, Krungthai, estimating that it will be 2026 before the critical industry for powering the economy returns to 2019 levels.

Danucha Pichayanan, the Secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), the government’s key economic agency, has called on ministers to make visa provisions for foreign tourists more flexible and user-friendly while also marketing the kingdom’s legalisation of medical marijuana or pot in a bid to boost the still slow recovery of the country’s critical foreign tourism industry. It comes as Thai exports have plummeted with the Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), this week, revealing that business confidence fell in December for the first time in seven months as the country’s industrial confidence index fell due to faltering output.

 

The Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) has issued a stark warning to the government that confidence in the manufacturing sector has been undermined with the country’s industrial confidence index for December falling for the first time in seven months.

 

Full story: https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2023/01/19/call-for-flexible-visas-to-boost-economy/

 

-- © Copyright Thai Examiner 2023-01-20

 

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[ezflip]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

has called on ministers to make visa provisions for foreign tourists more flexible and user-friendly while also marketing the kingdom’s legalisation of medical marijuana or pot

Hmmm. Maybe IF he was to give said pot to the ministers, they would become more flexible and user-friendly. Food for thought.

[flyingtlger]

Beg, borrow or steal....Any way to make a buck!

[freedomnow]

365 visa change proposals a year.

[jcmj]

Do they not understand that as the Thai baht strengthens people will look for better opportunities from other countries. Exports will continue to decline as long as the baht rises. Too many other options. 

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Downturn in exports and manufacturing is filtering into the wider economy while the recovery of the foreign tourism industry is still a slow and ongoing process with one Thai bank, Krungthai, estimating that it will be 2026 before the critical industry for powering the economy returns to 2019 levels.

Without tourism and the girls working flat-out [cough] Thailand would be sunk.

Prayut & Co have done nothing for 8 years.

[ikke1959]

The THB is far too expensive.....That makes things from THailand expensive to buy... and with no modernizing of laws in Thailand , the country will stay behind

[ourmanflint]

Thai baht is doing all the hard work, making exports too difficult and too expensive. 
suspect most foreigners are fed up with Thai rules, flip-flops and u-turns as well

[Gottfrid]

2026! At least someone starts to be close to true numbers

[nigelforbes]

3 hours ago, jcmj said:

Do they not understand that as the Thai baht strengthens people will look for better opportunities from other countries. Exports will continue to decline as long as the baht rises. Too many other options. 

"Thailand’s rice industry, in particular, is losing ground to competitors because of an elevated value of the Thai baht right now with higher prices sought by producers".

 

Is the problem really a Baht that's too strong or is it the increased prices that are too high!

[Cake Monster]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Downturn in exports and manufacturing is filtering into the wider economy while the recovery of the foreign tourism industry is still a slow and ongoing process with one Thai bank, Krungthai, estimating that it will be 2026 before the critical industry for powering the economy returns to 2019 levels.

Not only is there a downturn in Exports and Manufacturing, but there also seems to be more signs of another round of Inflationary hikes about to start.

I think this has all been so predictable with the increase to Business users on the cost of Electricity.

The FT rate on my Wifes Business, has risen this month from an FT value of 0.9343 per unit to 1.5492 per unit. a whopping rise of 0.6149 Baht per Unit - plus 7 % VAT.

This is close to 70 % with the VAT added

With high Energy costs such as this, Employee Wage Rises, plus the highly over valued Baht,

which will play onto a reduction in Tourist numbers, I feel the wheels are starting to fall off the Thai  seemingly Invincible Economy going forward.

 

[BritScot]

Well things must be very bad and probably far worse than the statement implies!

[nigelforbes]

8 minutes ago, BritScot said:

Well things must be very bad and probably far worse than the statement implies!

I don't see the problem TBH, I think the man is talking about the confidence index, not about exports per se.

 

https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/exports

 

 

[BangkokReady]

14 hours ago, webfact said:

Danucha Pichayanan, called for more flexible visas to make it more attractive and easier for foreign tourists to come and stay in Thailand.

Well this is just crazy talk.  We need to be making it harder and less attractive to visit Thailand as a tourist.  That way only the high-quality tourists will come!

[nigelforbes]

Apparently, the Chinese are staying home, for a series of reasons.

 

 

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/nearly-half-of-chinese-tourists-don-t-plan-to-travel-overseas-this-year-1.1872119

[Elkski]

2 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

Well this is just crazy talk.  We need to be making it harder and less attractive to visit Thailand as a tourist.  That way only the high-quality tourists will come!

What is a high quality tourist?  Doesn't it depend on which rich investment the ones in power are invested in.  Lots of retail space for rent or sale in Asoke. 

Another reason to smack the fingers of the Chinese in the cookie jar. 

[Elkski]

2 minutes ago, nigelforbes said:

Apparently, the Chinese are staying home, for a series of reasons.

 

 

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/nearly-half-of-chinese-tourists-don-t-plan-to-travel-overseas-this-year-1.1872119

But if they don't ask questions like how often did you travel in 2019?  The % on those answers are not to meaningful.  It seems like overall less than 50% of Chinese have ever crossed a border besides Hong Kong.

[nigelforbes]

1 minute ago, Elkski said:

But if they don't ask questions like how often did you travel in 2019?  The % on those answers are not to meaningful. 

If you had read the article you would see it says, "About 40% of Chinese travelers aren’t planning to venture overseas". It doesn't say 40% of all Chinese, it specifically says travellers hence respondents have been qualified somehow.

[BangkokReady]

2 hours ago, Elkski said:

What is a high quality tourist?

Basically, some people don't like the idea of working/middle class tourist coming to Thailand to get drunk, party, and use prostitutes.  They would rather have extremely wealthy tourists staying in luxury hotels and eating in expensive restaurants. 

 

This is based the international image that Thailand has and the affect this has on how much "face" they either lose or gain.  They don't really care about the amount of money coming in or whether regular Thai people are benefiting from it.