Alien Business Runs Up Against The Law

[Ajarn]

Alien business runs up against the law

Watcharapong Jingkaujai

Pusadee Wattanapanich, head of Chiang Mai’s Provincial Business Development Office, said that the Department of Business Development, Ministry of Commerce, (responsible for alien business as per the Alien Business Act 1999), received petitions about alien businesses avoiding alien business status by letting Thai citizens be nominal shareholders.

This process is undertaken to avoid requesting alien business permissions, because they might think it was too complicated. Using nominee nationals as shareholders would result in three years imprisonment or a hundred thousand to a million baht charge as a fine, and both Thai shareholders and aliens would be prosecuted.

The Department of Business Development said that any alien business could run a legal business in Thailand if it registered legally as per the alien business law. The process of applying for the permissions was not difficult as there are officers to give advice.

However, (confusingly) an alien can run other businesses which are not listed in the Alien Business Act 1999 with Thai citizens becoming majority of shareholders.

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/current/news.shtml#hd4

[SBACM]

After reading this in the Chiang Mai mail I also asked:

What the <deleted> is this about?

Someone please explain?

It goes to show the quality of the Paper

Garbage!!!

please show more pictures of Marion and Micheal and that German chef!!

I dont think there are quite enough!!

[Ajarn]

After reading this in the Chiang Mai mail I also asked:

What the <deleted> is this about?

Someone please explain?

It goes to show the quality of the Paper

Garbage!!!

please show more pictures of Marion and Micheal and that German chef!!

I dont think there are quite enough!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Great, I'm maybe not the ignorant fool I feared, which is why I posted it without comment. What is the STORY? It made zero sense to me.

Now someone will surely come along and prove me wrong again

[chuchok]

It's got me buggered too.

[Thetyim]

I do wish you'd listen, Ajarn. It's perfectly simple. If you're not getting your hair cut, you don't have to move your brother's clothes down to the lower peg.

You simply collect his note before lunch, after you've done your scripture prep, when you've written your letter home, before rest, move your own clothes onto the lower peg, greet the visitors, and report to Mr. Viney that you've had your chit signed.

[maerim]

do wish you'd listen, Ajarn. It's perfectly simple. If you're not getting your hair cut, you don't have to move your brother's clothes down to the lower peg.

You simply collect his note before lunch, after you've done your scripture prep, when you've written your letter home, before rest, move your own clothes onto the lower peg, greet the visitors, and report to Mr. Viney that you've had your chit signed.

Aprt from that a good movie and don't foget the cormarant thats why China is still British!

[cmsally]

Can't make sense of that article!

This makes more sense!

http://www.thailandlaw.com/legalalienbusact.html

Would hardly think applying for Cabinet approval is "easy" as mentioned in the Chiang Mai Mail! You can't just queue up for the relevant paperwork to open any business because are basically barred to foreigners.

They should try a bit of research with their articles instead of always quoting someone and not really understanding what they are talking about.

[ovenman]

What is the STORY? It made zero sense to me.

Now someone will surely come along and prove me wrong again 

I think what the article is trying to say is the powers-that-be have received complaints about businesses that are actually foreign-owned but attempt to skirt the registration of such ownership by claiming Thai ownership. But I wouldn't bet the farm on that interpretation...

[PeaceBlondie]

Could this explain why I bought the Chiang Mai Mail newspaper once or twice (20 baht for a couple of pages) and never bought it again? I didn't find anything that really interested me. I don't even like paying 20 baht for the Post or Nation, but there is more news there.

If you don't care about local sports or schools or Thai food, what's in that paper? Am I missing something? Oh yes, and the latest receptions that were attneded by various Consuls.

[Ajarn]

I've never picked up the paper because I'm not in town much, so I read it online. It's free, so I can't really complain. It does sometimes have some local news that isn't easy to find in English around here. Of course, this story illustrated above should be a clue for someone there to do some better editing... And often the 'news' stories are written more as an editorial or as satire, in my observations.

The social smoozing gets some attention from me only because I look for photos of people I know. The restaurant 'review' (I use that term lightly, for nary a contrary word is ever written, it seems) is good for location details and some menu info...

I also sometimes find an interesting article or two in the 'features' section, but that's just sometimes...

Yeah, lots of fluff, but it's free, and I've appreciated free stuff as far back as I can remember

Edited May 29, 2005 by Ajarn

[Considered Opinion]

The Chiangmai-Mail and Goodmorning Chiang Mai must be edited by the same person. Neither make a lot of sense from what I have seen here in azerbaijan.

[yeoldesage]

.....The restaurant 'review' (I use that term lightly, for nary a contrary word is ever written, it seems) is good for location details and some menu info...

Yea you're right Ajarn, I took time out to drop them an email suggesting it would be more useful to their readers if they gave a more balanced report in the 'Dining Out' column, but they didn't respond, guess they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them eh!

[lamphun]

Alien business runs up against the law

Watcharapong Jingkaujai

Pusadee Wattanapanich, head of Chiang Mai’s Provincial Business Development Office, said that the Department of Business Development, Ministry of Commerce, (responsible for alien business as per the Alien Business Act 1999), received petitions about alien businesses avoiding alien business status by letting Thai citizens be nominal shareholders.

Seems fairly straightforward. Thai and Chinese businesses are complaining of competition from foreigners who run businesses nominally owned by Thai's.

It's hardly surprising. Look around you'll see foreigners "running" burger shops, cycle shops, seedy book shops. Local businesses are complaining to the cops.

[Ajarn]

.....The restaurant 'review' (I use that term lightly, for nary a contrary word is ever written, it seems) is good for location details and some menu info...

Yea you're right Ajarn, I took time out to drop them an email suggesting it would be more useful to their readers if they gave a more balanced report in the 'Dining Out' column, but they didn't respond, guess they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them eh!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sure. Every restaurant is a potential advertiser (not to mention a photo-op for a couple of folks! )

I do wish they'd at least change some of the tired 'information' (plugs) that run over over in their columns, for months on end...

[polecat]

Aside from the sausage restaurant pics, my favourite section is the weekly personality section - every farang featured fell in love with Thailand's people, food and scenery, and every Thai featured is a really 'good' person. I do wish they'd feature some of the moustache brothers who hang out at Bier Stube...

[jomama]

I like the banner headline this week in the schools section (Academia Nuts) ?! with big story and pics about a school that's teaching its kids how to swim with their clothes on. Perhaps a valuable skill some day, but banner news, I don't know...

[moebius]

hmmm...just about every time I ever had to swim I had my clothes on.

Couldn't get undressed fast enough before I hit the water.

[pedro01]

Alien business runs up against the law

Watcharapong Jingkaujai

Pusadee Wattanapanich, head of Chiang Mai’s Provincial Business Development Office, said that the Department of Business Development, Ministry of Commerce, (responsible for alien business as per the Alien Business Act 1999), received petitions about alien businesses avoiding alien business status by letting Thai citizens be nominal shareholders.

This process is undertaken to avoid requesting alien business permissions, because they might think it was too complicated. Using nominee nationals as shareholders would result in three years imprisonment or a hundred thousand to a million baht charge as a fine, and both Thai shareholders and aliens would be prosecuted.

The Department of Business Development said that any alien business could run a legal business in Thailand if it registered legally as per the alien business law. The process of applying for the permissions was not difficult as there are officers to give advice.

However, (confusingly) an alien can run other businesses which are not listed in the Alien Business Act 1999 with Thai citizens becoming majority of shareholders.

http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/current/news.shtml#hd4

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hmmm - what a load of tripe - The Alien Business Act does let you set up a foreign-owned company here but there are so many restrictions on what you are allowed to do that it absolutely pointless.

The one exception is that if you go through BOI, they will be able to sort out an Alien Business License for a promoted activity - even though you would not be able to do it if you applied directly for an Alien Business License.

I'm in the process of doing this now to get 100% foreign ownership of a software company.