Greatest Revenue Generator For Thailand

[brahmburgers]

Some might say the rice market - methinks the greatest source of revenue coming in to Thailand is from individual foreigners. There are roughly two categories of such mega influx of monies: tourists and male farang residents. I would further guess that much maligned foreign men residents bring the greater degree of outside money in to Thailand.

Go figure, most of them have Thai girlfriends and wives - and, as the saying goes, 'marry the girl, and you marry the family' - trite-sounding but true. Trink would say 'nuff said' after expounding such opinions, but I don't like to end paragraphs with such absolutes - as I'm open to others' opinions - and will be happy to admit I'm wrong if the data indicates such.

The next thought is, if our current government worships money as much as they indicate, then perhaps a bit more appreciation for foreign men, (however dog-eared they may appear at times) would be appreciated. At least not make their continued residence so hassle prone. One example: the middle aged Dutch doctor who nearly single-handedly set up a clinic to comfort Thai AIDS sufferers - that dude is (technically) illegally in Thailand, and has to mosey up to the border every 30 days to get a rubber stamp.

[astral]

Xenophobia is the word you are looking for.

Fear is strangers, and they don't get any stranger than some of us!!

[Ajarn]

Xenophobia is the word you are looking for.

Fear is strangers, and they don't get any stranger than some of us!!

Well said!

[Sexy Beast]

The purge on foreigners by the Thai government is strange however I imagine it’s all international pressure out clean up the sex industry which generates most of the income for the entire country.

[Spee]

...I imagine it’s all international pressure out clean up the sex industry which generates most of the income for the entire country.

Sorry but I don't believe that statement for a millisecond.

Would you care to elaborate on it?

[KevinN]

The purge on foreigners by the Thai government is strange however I imagine it’s all international pressure out clean up the sex industry which generates most of the income for the entire country.

There is not really a purge,,just the noise so when they raise the price of visa extensions and such that there is not so much bitching,,as when mexico was going to put a price on tourist 6 month visas that had been free,so many people raised so much ###### that they had to back down and continue the free visas.

Cheerless leader is dumb not stupid.

[Sexy Beast]

Maybe purge is the wrong word however there has been a flurry of concern about over the entire visa situation, yet we have yet to see if it will have any real impact. KevinN sounds correct in the fact it just be a ruse to fleece expats of more cash.

[ASIC]

There is a whole deal of guessing going on here, and maybe some of us whould like to be a bit more important than they really are?

What about some hard facts? How many farang males live in The Realm full time? How many actually spend a great deal of money? I see most of us actually fitting in quite well, get used to the price level here, and after some time end up with spending habbits similar to most Thais. E.g. I think it's minimal what the average english teacher can contribute to the Thai economy.

I should think, the average Japanese or Korean expat spends a great deal more here than we do. They are here only on 1 or 2 year stints and have no intention of settling here.

Also, compared to 60 million Thais, some of which are riched than any of us could ever dream of being, the Farang income may not amount to much. For example, how many of you could afford a couple of Mercedes Benz or 20k Baht mobile phones for your 6 year old kids?

Certainly compared to the 5 or so million tourists coming here anually, I don't think the resident farang male's expenditure will amount to much.

Again, I am guessing... so gentlemen. SOME FACTS PLEASE?

ASIC

[KevinN]

OK I can do that, as you know,my wife works full time as a gov't employee so her salery is constant with no breaks and I am retired with some pensions,so no breaks there either.

We spend every month at least 60,000 and most months 70,000 and rarely do we spend more unless we buy a large cash item,,but that would be a one time thing.

But within the last 3 years we have built the new house,bought a couple of motorcycles and a car,furniture and appliances. so it would be hard to just pick a figure,but if we want it,by god we have it.,, friends say I am nuts for doing it,but i have an agreement with a co. in BKK and i get shipped to me monthly about 15,000 baht worth of imported beef,something you can eat,I will not skimp on the grub.

[ASIC]

OK, let's take KevinN as a typical Farang living here, spending an average of about 70k/month, of which, let's say, 50k is from abroad.

Question number 2: How many farangs are there in Thailand permanently?

Also, I think a lot of the readers of this forum are confined to their own little world, either in Baan Nork, or around Sukhumvit. How many here are involved with Thai industry?

It is no secret that I am in the electronics business and have some insight there. For example. LG and Samsung are each producing 1 million microwave ovens here MONTHLY, and about 200k aircons each per year. Samsung also do all their small-size computer monitors here. There are 5 or 6 semiconductor packaging houses. Each of them can do about 10 million devices PER DAY. I don't have the % of parts actually made in Thailand, where these guys get their raw material, and how much is re-export, but for sure the customers (i.e. Wallmart, GE, etc) are paying in US$

Also, roughly 30% of a Thai made car is actually made in Thailand, and the rest is re-export from Japan/Europe/USA. All are paid in US$, Yen or Euro.

I guess only the Thai govt. will have all the details. Any web-site with some statistics?

ASIC

[wolf5370]

I'm not so sure its just about raising cash.

It seems to me that a lot of promises and 'interesting' projections have been made by TRT. Either they rely on the hope that the populous has the memory rentension of a goldfish, they have to find a way of delievering (yeah right) or some scape goat may need to be found (Mmmm wonder where they're going to find that?).

I may be cynical, but it would not be the first time that a government did this (the target is always the easiest, the settlers - Jews, Kurds, Georgians etc).

PS: When was Thailand supposed to be listed as a first world country?

[samran]

not quite answering the question, but check this out

http://www.rd.go.th/publish/6104.0.html

I think Thailands largest export earner is tourism, but simply having exports does not make for a growing economy, witness Japan for the past decade.

What will make Thailand grow is economic reform of the economy and growth in domestic consumption and industries, as well as a more spohisticated production base.

Don't want to burst your bubble, but amongst all that, the average resident expat probably doesn't make the biggest economic impact on Thailand. What they do socially is another question.

[john b good]

I'm not so sure its just about raising cash.

It seems to me that a lot of promises and 'interesting' projections have been made by TRT. Either they rely on the hope that the populous has the memory rentension of a goldfish, they have to find a way of delievering (yeah right) or some scape goat may need to be found (Mmmm wonder where they're going to find that?).

I may be cynical, but it would not be the first time that a government did this (the target is always the easiest, the settlers - Jews, Kurds, Georgians etc).

PS: When was Thailand supposed to be listed as a first world country?

PS: When was Thailand supposed to be listed as a first world country?

Has someone actually claimed the above to be the case

If someone did say it, it could only have been one person, and that would have had to have been "the guy with the PhD in criminology"

[john b good]

Xenophobia is the word you are looking for.

Fear is strangers, and they don't get any stranger than some of us!!

And they don't come a lot more xenophobic than they do in the realm do they

[Up2U]

Xenophobia is the word you are looking for.

Fear is strangers, and they don't get any stranger than some of us!!

And they don't come a lot more xenophobic than they do in the realm do they

You've obviously not worked with the Japanese

[thaihome]

I too hate to burst your bubble, but the amount of currency brought in from overseas by your group of resident expats is miniscule compared to Thailands exports. According to Ministry of Commerce Thailand's exports in 2003 totaled some 3,333 BILLION baht. It would take a whole lot of Kevins at 600K per year to make any sort of impact (about 5,000,000 Kevins as a matter of fact).

This whole argument that the Thai government should relax the visa rules instead of making it harder to stay on marginal income because of the huge impact they have just doesn't hold water. I will grant the impact is huge on individuals, but against the entire Thai ecomony, the government is not losing anything.

TH

[Sarawudt]

I too hate to burst your bubble, but the amount of currency brought in from overseas by your group of resident expats is miniscule compared to Thailands exports. According to Ministry of Commerce Thailand's exports in 2003 totaled some 3,333 BILLION baht. It would take a whole lot of Kevins at 600K per year to make any sort of impact (about 5,000,000 Kevins as a matter of fact).

This whole argument that the Thai government should relax the visa rules instead of making it harder to stay on marginal income because of the huge impact they have just doesn't hold water. I will grant the impact is huge on individuals, but against the entire Thai ecomony, the government is not losing anything.

TH

5 million farang on a population of 64 million Thais is not that much, or is it?

Thaihome failed to mention that Thailand had a budget deficit in one month in this year,meaning that the money outflow was larger than the money inflow.

More "Kevins" would affect this positivly for Thailand or do I see this wrong?

[Calum H]

Or South Korea either.

[samran]

I too hate to burst your bubble, but the amount of currency brought in from overseas by your group of resident expats is miniscule compared to Thailands exports.  According to Ministry of Commerce Thailand's exports in 2003 totaled some 3,333 BILLION baht.  It would take a whole lot of Kevins at 600K per year to make any sort of impact (about 5,000,000 Kevins as a matter of fact).

This whole argument that the Thai government should relax the visa rules instead of making it harder to stay on marginal income because of the huge impact they have just doesn't hold water.  I will grant the impact is huge on individuals, but against the entire Thai ecomony, the government is not losing anything.

TH

5 million farang on a population of 64 million Thais is not that much, or is it?

Thaihome failed to mention that Thailand had a budget deficit in one month in this year,meaning that the money outflow was larger than the money inflow.

More "Kevins" would affect this positivly for Thailand or do I see this wrong?

you see it wrong

It is possible to have a stongly economy with a current account deficit (which measures imports over exports) - somewhere like Australia, or have a weak economy with a massive current account surplus (ie more exports than imports) like Japan.

So forigners only have a marginal impact on the economy, except when the are skilled migants or filling a labour shortage. But they don't really affect the economy by bringing the money in (like some people like to believe), they only help the economy if they are productive workers, helping to build the economic base of a country.

Plus there are not 5 million farang in Thailand.

[ovenman]

PS: When was Thailand supposed to be listed as a first world country?

Has someone actually claimed the above to be the case

If someone did say it, it could only have been one person, and that would have had to have been "the guy with the PhD in criminology"

Actually The Shill, finance minister Somkid Jatusipitak, made a statement around New Year's that because the Thai stock market performed so well in 2003, Thailand was poised to become a fully-developed country in 2004.

[Limbo]

Fully-developed countries, how do you define them? Do they exist?

It sounds very static, as if they would have reached an imaginary finish-line. Fully developed would mean the end of development, the end of evolution. Help!

And it sounds as if western conditions are setting the norm for development of countries in the rest of the world.

Once the Vikings ordered the Frisians to wear halters around their necks so that they could hang them on the nearest tree if they wanted.

What is a fully developed country? A country where at least fifty procent of the male population wears neckties?

[mbkudu]

Excellent!

[TizMe]

More "Kevins" would affect this positivly for Thailand or do I see this wrong?

I think that we have invented a new measure of expendature, the "Kevin".

Just as the Ohm, Watt, Kelvin, Hertz and Newton are named after people, we now have the Kevin.

1 Kevin = 60,000 Baht per month.

So now:

My rent is 0.25 Kevins

[kat]

 

Fully-developed countries, how do you define them? Do they exist?

It sounds very static, as if they would have reached an imaginary finish-line. Fully developed would mean the end of development, the end of evolution. Help!

And it sounds as if western conditions are setting the norm for development of countries in the rest of the world.

Once the Vikings ordered the Frisians to wear halters around their necks so that they could hang them on the nearest tree if they wanted.

What is a fully developed country? A country where at least fifty procent of the male population wears neckties?

Economy is not the only important indicator that distinguishes between a developed or undeveloped country. Listings by the IMF and World Bank account for creditor and debtor nations, but paying off one's debt does not immediately change measurements that spell DEVELOPED. It is a good start, but there are other important factors.

Disparities between agricultural and urban wealth is one very important indicator, and the integrity and cohesion of institutions is another. Generally speaking, developing countries have a much larger agricultural population than any other, while the wealth is almost entirely concentrated in a small cabal of urban and landowning elite. Thailand is officially a low middle-income developing country, so this concentration of wealth has filtered out to a middle class a bit. PM Thaksin has said that he wants Thailand to be listed as developed by 2014 or 2024 or something, so the thought that this would occur in 2004 is, well, laughable. Thailand cannot even enforce traffic regulations yet.

Institutions are also a very important indicator of developed/undeveloped. Regulation and enforcement is generally not cohesive in developing countries. Corruption is a major component of this predicament and diverts a good chunk of public money to underground economies. Institutions include everything from the Parliment, civil service, POLICE, education, religion, civil society, and family. At the moment, none of these institutions seem to be functioning as a cohesive structure that serves the public good within a transparent, regulatory framework with good enforcement mechanisms. That is why Thailand, IMHO, will surprise many if it is listed as a developed country in 2024, never mind next year.

[ovenman]

Fully-developed countries, how do you define them? Do they exist?

Not that one would get all of us or any group of us here to agree on a definition for developed nation, but I'm sure that some world body or NGO has a set of parameters by which this standard is defined.

[kat]

Fully-developed countries, how do you define them? Do they exist?

Not that one would get all of us or any group of us here to agree on a definition for developed nation, but I'm sure that some world body or NGO has a set of parameters by which this standard is defined.

Yes, and those world bodies are the Bretton Woods Institutions (i.e. IMF, World Bank, UN, etc.)

Of course, many people like to debate the definitions, but if we are talking about an official, international definition, then these institutions set the parameters based on varying sets of indicators.

[otherstuff1957]

I don't have the figures in front of me, but I recall seeing somewhere that tourism accounts for about 30% of the GDP here. However, that's tourism, which is entirely seperate from the expat scene! I'd agree that expats have very little impact on the economy as a whole. Many of us have "gone native" and spend relatively little money here. I think that our biggest impact is in HOW we distribute what wealth we have. Most of us have wives or girlfriends who are at best middle class. We often have a fairly big impact on their families.

The way I see it, expats are doing a nice job in helping to improve the lifestyles of a large number of lower/middle class Thais. Our social impact is probably far greater than our overall economic impact.

[Begs]

The way I see it, expats are doing a nice job in helping to improve the lifestyles of a large number of lower/middle class Thais. Our social impact is probably far greater than our overall economic impact.

A guy that sees things as they really are, I agree with you.

.............Too many Farang think Thailand cannot possibly survive without them...............

It would affect individuals of course, but i don't think Thailand would fall into recession if all the expats left tomorrow.

[Sarawudt]

More "Kevins" would affect this positivly for Thailand or do I see this wrong?

I think that we have invented a new measure of expendature, the "Kevin".

Just as the Ohm, Watt, Kelvin, Hertz and Newton are named after people, we now have the Kevin.

1 Kevin = 60,000 Baht per month.

So now:

My rent is 0.25 Kevins

This makes me wonder, how many "Kevins" does the average expat earn here? One kevin approx. satisfied visa requirements, those with zero comma values are in serious danger ....

[wolf5370]

About my "1st world country" gibe earlier. This was said by Thaksin on the back of the Stock exchange recovery and planned payoff of IMF debts (at the time). It was stated that by 2004 Thailand would be a 1st world country - or that was the aim. That was before chicken flu 1/2/etc, SARS and terrorism in the South though.

A thread went around here at the time, and it basically came down to the fact that "1st worldness" is not mearsured per say, but 'stated'. That is to say, that if Thailand 'declares' itself 1st world, it will be. The diffence? Well 3rd world countries are (supposedly) helped by 1st world ones. That is, benefits are accorded to poor countries (like wiping off unpayable debt etc), and the rich countries foot the bill.

To you, me and everyone else with two brain cells (or more) to rub together will have some kind of measure that, although blurred by definition, is somewhat comparable as to what makes a 1st world country. Lets face it most of the west has huge debts, but they are still rich (?). I think we probably equate it to the people and their lifestyles in the country. Rich people, rich country.

What is Saudi Arabia? Some very rich people, but many more extreamly poor ones.

I once saw a column that said America has bigger depts than any third world country and has more people living below the bread line than many poor countries (it said more, but can't remember it) ... and yet is still considered the worlds richest country (this may be well out of date though). This implies its based on the countries GDP I suppose. Confuses the h3ll out of me.