Thai transport twist: No chinese takeover in the fast lane, says DLT

[webfact]

The Department of Land Transport (DLT) dismissed media reports suggesting Chinese companies are increasingly taking over struggling Thai transport businesses, emphasising that licences issued to one business cannot be transferred in the event of a takeover.

 

“More importantly, only Thai legal entities registered and headquartered in Thailand are eligible to hold the licences.”

 

The DLT clarified that at least 51% of a business’s shareholders must be Thai for it to operate legally.

 

Next week, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance will address concerns that Thai citizens are being paid to hold shares to circumvent this rule.

They will collaborate to develop better measures to regulate these foreign companies in disguise and ensure they cannot gain any advantages over local Thai business operators, the DLT release noted.

Regarding the presence of numerous Chinese lorries in Thailand, the DLT stated that vehicles from any country are allowed to be used in Thailand, provided they are legally imported and meet all related requirements for use in the transport sector.

 

Currently, over 8,400 vehicles produced in China are registered for use in Thailand’s transport sector. Many of these vehicles were assembled by a Chinese car maker with a production base in Thailand, according to the DLT.

 

The DLT also emphasised its commitment to following the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the six countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), including Thailand, in 2016. This agreement on the Early Harvest Implementation of the Cross-Border Transport Facilitation Agreement (CBTA) has been extended to December 31, 2026.

The DLT added that this agreement benefits Thai transport operators.

 

To date, 11 Thai companies have applied for licences to operate a total of 458 trucks under this regional agreement. They expect to begin operating on September 1.

 

On Saturday, a source in the private passenger transport sector revealed that many Chinese companies are negotiating to take over more Thai passenger transport businesses.

 

With about half of the Thai operators having gone out of business, these Chinese operators are eager to enter the market. They see introducing more electric vehicles as one of several measures that could return the sector to profitability, said the source, reported Bangkok Post.

 

by Bob Scott

Picture courtesy of Bangkok Post

 

Source: The Thaiger 2024-08-14

 

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[2baht]

24 minutes ago, webfact said:

“More importantly, only Thai legal entities registered and headquartered in Thailand are eligible to hold the licences.”

 

The insurgency will rectify that in time!

[Will B Good]

30 minutes ago, webfact said:

The Department of Land Transport (DLT) dismissed media reports suggesting Chinese companies are increasingly taking over struggling Thai transport businesses, emphasising that licences issued to one business cannot be transferred in the event of a takeover.

 

 

Well that statement has allayed all my fears....no Chinese take over....and relax.

[Tropicalevo]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

emphasising that licences issued to one business cannot be transferred in the event of a takeover.

 

So the government assumes that illegal owners care about a licence?

[Mavideol]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

“More importantly, only Thai legal entities registered and headquartered in Thailand are eligible to hold the licences.”

let's wait 2-3 days for the change of mind  555

[hotchilli]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Next week, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance will address concerns that Thai citizens are being paid to hold shares to circumvent this rule.

They will collaborate to develop better measures to regulate these foreign companies in disguise and ensure they cannot gain any advantages over local Thai business operators, the DLT release noted.

Sounds like the loop-holes are being exploited already

[nakhonandy]

1 hour ago, 2baht said:

The insurgency will rectify that in time!

N need, they just find a Thai willing to act as nominee for money. Job done.

[Kerryd]

Throw it into the bucket of examples of China's slowing growing control of Thailand.

As mentioned before, people see one story like this and ignore it as a "single little thing" that isn't a part of some "greater plan".

Because they've forgotten (or never paid attention to) all the other "single little things" that China has done, or is doing, or wants to do.

Chinese investors want to build new super hi-rise condo buildings (that was a few years ago).

China wants to build a high speed rail line from China to Thailand (that China will own and control for a very long time before eventually turning over the Thai portion to Thailand).

China wants in on a proposed "land bridge" linking the Andaman Sea with the Gulf of Thailand. (To be owned and operated by China - probably for a period of 55+ years like their deals in Cambodia for the new airports they built there.)

Thailand grants China full "Visa exemption" privileges.
Thailand - coincidentally - increases the "Visa Exemption" period from 30 to 60 days.

The Chinese love gambling. Thailand has strictly forbidden it for ages (probably before the days of Rama I).
Thailand busts top money-launderer connected to numerous online gambling sites.

Suddenly, Thailand wants to legalize gambling.

Remember the story and scandal about finding Chinese police officers - in uniform - "working" in Thailand ?
(Canada and other countries also found that the Chinese had "unofficial" police stations running in their countries, looking for dissidents and keeping tabs on Chinese citizens in those countries.)

Sheesh, that makes the "all Chinese" advertising billboards offering to sell passports seem inconsequential by comparison !

Remember the condos ? Suddenly Thailand wants to change the "49% foreign ownership" rules which will allow condo buildings to be "majority owned by foreigners".

Thailand says it's because there's a glut of unsold "high end" condos (from between a couple thousand to a couple hundred thousand depending which "official" is making an announcement it seems). Apparently they are all in the 20-30 million baht price range !

The officials are saying that the "new ownership" rules will only apply to condos in certain "zoned" areas.
(Sounds like a plan for Chinese condos, built by Chinese "front companies", in "zoned" areas where they can control who buys those condos and give them 99 year leases to ensure they maintain control of the buildings.)

(Funny, how did all those thousands and thousands of supposedly unsold high end condos all end up in the "zoned" areas that haven't even been approved or designated yet ? Unless they already know where those zones will be and are just waiting for those "high end" condos to be built ?
Some might good fortune telling going on somewhere !)

99 year Leases - almost as good as ownership (depending on the details and costs of course). And a useful way to get around the "51% Thai ownership" issue. 

Simply sell 49% of the units in your new Condo building to "foreign" owners/companies (that you control), then lease the other 51% - to the same owners/companies (or different owners/companies that you also control).
Essentially the building and the land are now yours for the next century.

And you can make sure no pesky "non-Chinese" gweilos (white devils) move in !

[PETERTHEEATER]

3 hours ago, Will B Good said:

 

 

Well that statement has allayed all my fears....no Chinese take over....and relax.

Yes. They can do 'takeaways' but not 'takeovers' 😀

[JimHuaHin]

The Thai elite, selling Thailand to the Chinese.  The same elite who probably have Western passports, billions of Baht in overseas bank accounts, and numerous properties and businesses overseas, to where they can escape when necessary.