Thailand rises in the World Bank's ease of doing business index

BANGKOK, 29 October 2014 (NNT) – Thailand’s 2015 ranking in the ease of doing business index by the World Bank has gone up thanks to an easing of restrictions by the government.

Mr. Ulrich Zachau, the Bangkok based World Bank Country Director for South East Asia, said that Thailand’s ranking in the 2015 ease of doing business index now goes up to 26th from last year’s 28th position.

This index is determined as a one year prediction and involves 189 countries world wide. The index for 2015 was announced via teleconference from the World Bank in Washington DC.

The main reason for the improvement is the priority the government is giving to service improvements, such as construction permission for which the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is the responsible agency but which has now authorised district offices to grant approvals where the proposed construction is not taller than 8 storeys. In addition the Department of Business Development’s cross-district partnership and company establishment registration, allows the registration to be done at any office of the department.

The Thai government also has a policy of attracting foreign business interests to invest in Thailand, with special offers such as a reduction in the property transfer fee from 2 percent to 0.01 percent, and a reduction in the rate of Corporate Income Tax from 30% to 20%.

However, Thailand still has to make improvements in other services such as access to loan credit , solutions to bankruptcy issues, and investor protection. These are mainly related to laws that obstruct investment and could be amended.


-- NNT 2014-10-29

World Bank places Thailand 26th in 'Doing Business' rankings
By Digital Content

BANGKOK, Oct 29 -- The World Bank has positioned Thailand in the 26th rank, rising two notches from last year, in its annual "Doing Business" ranking of the best environments to start and run a company, while Singapore has occupied the top position for nine years.

Ulrich Zachau, World Bank Thailand country director, said Thailand moved up from its 28th position last year in global rankings of 189 countries.

Singapore remains in the first place worldwide, and ASEAN, for the ninth year.

China moves up from 93rd to 90th, Malaysia from 20th to 18th, and Myanmar from 178th to 177th place.

Moving downward are Japan from 27th to 29th, the Philippines from 86th to 95th, and Cambodia from 134th to 135th.

Mr Zachau said Thailand had used electronic systems to streamline import and export procedures for seven years and showed that modern technological application helped improve the business environment.

Wannaporn Thephasadin na Ayutthaya, adviser to the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission, said Thailand ranked higher because the public sector kept improving its services to attract investors. She mentioned policies to cut the asset transfer fee from to 0.01 per cent and the corporate income tax from 30 per cent to 20 per cent. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2014-10-29

While it seems very nice that Thailand has risen in terms of doing business, blahblahblah, I have a healthy skepticism toward any rankings provided by the World Bank. The 1997 crisis comes to mind, when Thailand obeyed all the rules regarding freely allowing capital outflows, and got hammered; while Malaysia's Mahathir dug in his heels and said 'no way' to demands by the international financial institutions. Malaysia experienced very little downturn.

Also if you will note, many of the "ease of doing business" criteria represent dead giveaways to corporate interests-- reducing the corporate income tax (which I'm guessing the large multinationals don't deign to pay anyway), "investor protection", and "access to loan credit" (we are left to guess at what that means, but I have a feeling it's another surrender to foreign investors who want minimal risk and maximum profit).

With this sort of dynamic, is it any wonder that 1% of the world earns 50% of its profits, and the bottom fifty percent hold 1% of the world's wealth? Also worth noting is that a high ranking is no guarantor of success-- Ireland and Iceland occupy lofty positions, and both have had crises in recent years related to bubble phenomena that are a hallmark of our modern economic program.

Edited October 29, 201411 yr by DeepInTheForest

About 81% of the 189 countries ranked showed improvements in their Doing Business scores with only a few actually changing their rankings. The balance of countries was unchanged.

Doing Business does not:

1) measure the full range of factors, policies and institutions that affect the quality of an economy’s business environment or its national competitiveness.

2) capture aspects of security, the prevalence of bribery and corruption, market size, macroeconomic stability, the state of the financial system or the level of training and skills of the labor force.

3) cover the reliability of electricity supply, getting credit for firms, and does not consider trading across borders, export or import tariffs and subsidies.

If Doing Business could somehow incorporate the above factors, would Thailand remain as low as 26?