Thailand cannot afford to open it's boarders for free trade and services, it will mean it's bankruptcy for sure.

I know a few hotels that would love to trade in most of their Thai staff for Burmese or staff from the Philippines.

When traveling internationally, we stay at a resort nearby Suvarnaphumi. We've stayed there a dozen times over the years. We just returned from the US.......and couldn't help but notice that many of the staff at this resort are now Burmese. Some even sport the powdered cheeks.

Very true if Thailand were smart they would get out of Asean as quickly as possible. Nothing to gain and everything to lose.

Thailand was not ready for the 21st century,but they were dragged unto it with the rest of the world. Granted they were digging in their heels, kicking, screaming, crying, etc but they got here. Now if we can get them to play the same game using the same rules/playing field we might be able to sell tickets to the spectators so they can watch.

I am curious as to who "them" is. I mean to make the radical changes in policy requires the buy in of the oligarchs who control the country. Rationally, it could be posited that "they" would be the first group to want to get the changes done, but a contrary opinion is that they are just fine and don't want to change much of anything, especially in the areas of education, business rules, access to capital, etc. Thailand needs something akin to the Marshal Plan or the reconstruction of Japanese government and industry after WW2. Given the time constraints, there does not appear to be a clear path forward. The two examples mentioned above were undertaken after the complete destruction of entire counties. They were successful in a very short time frame because there would no alternatives short of starvation and anarchy. I sincerely wish Thailand a better road, but it takes change and the government needs to demonstrate that change. Examples: Require all business documents to be prepared in Thai and English with both have equal weight in the courts; Select a few hundred promising Thai English teachers and sent them to school in the U.S.A. or other counties that have excelled at ESL instruction; How about an English language news television station; encouragement through Thai television programming to make the changes.

There needs, for sure, to be movement. The time for studies and talking has run out. It is time to do things.

.....like, not being able to communicate in English?

Thailand was not ready for the 21st century,but they were dragged unto it with the rest of the world. Granted they were digging in their heels, kicking, screaming, crying, etc but they got here. Now if we can get them to play the same game using the same rules/playing field we might be able to sell tickets to the spectators so they can watch.

I am curious as to who "them" is. I mean to make the radical changes in policy requires the buy in of the oligarchs who control the country. Rationally, it could be posited that "they" would be the first group to want to get the changes done, but a contrary opinion is that they are just fine and don't want to change much of anything, especially in the areas of education, business rules, access to capital, etc. Thailand needs something akin to the Marshal Plan or the reconstruction of Japanese government and industry after WW2. Given the time constraints, there does not appear to be a clear path forward. The two examples mentioned above were undertaken after the complete destruction of entire counties. They were successful in a very short time frame because there would no alternatives short of starvation and anarchy. I sincerely wish Thailand a better road, but it takes change and the government needs to demonstrate that change. Examples: Require all business documents to be prepared in Thai and English with both have equal weight in the courts; Select a few hundred promising Thai English teachers and sent them to school in the U.S.A. or other counties that have excelled at ESL instruction; How about an English language news television station; encouragement through Thai television programming to make the changes.

There needs, for sure, to be movement. The time for studies and talking has run out. It is time to do things.

Thai Chinese run Thailand. Malaysian Chinese run Malaysia, Indonesian Chinese run Indonesia and Philipino Chinese run the Philipinnes. Does anyone really think they are going to let any pseudo region wide government rain on their patch and make them compete with each other for the benefit of consumers and the local populations?

I have recently been undertaking consultancy work in Singapore in an unrelated field, but I took several opportunities to ask senior managers and executives how they were gearing up for AEC.

Several had no idea what I was talking about, and the majority of the others told me that Singapore is the worst for protectionist policies starting with immigration, and that they believed the government there are just playing lip service to the idea, but had no genuine intentions of seriously implementing it.

There has been no media campaign there to my knowledge either. My impression is that it will not actually make that much difference to the status quo in any of the participating countries.

Some interesting stuff in the link below, which might lead some to conclude that Thailand, having sensibly declined to sign the Trans Pacific Partnership being touted by Obama on behalf of Wall Street, should not be in a hurry to endorse yet another "free trade" agreement: http://altthainews.blogspot.com/search/label/Thailand

They have already signed on to the AEC. They're just not in a hurry to be ready for it.

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Cue even more big business, government partnerships with our friends in China.

China is still a burgeoning regional economic powerhouse and will continue to push its influence here and in those countries with natural resources and access to the sea.

Any business or transnational transport projects are a convenient smokescreen for a thinly veiled attempt to gain regional superiority and military influence.

I'm not sure how the AEC will make much difference for China given they're not an ASEAN country.

Look at the rest of the region.

I cant wait for the ASEAN beers to arrive in Thailand!!

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I'm not sure how the AEC will make much difference for China given they're not an ASEAN country.

Look at the rest of the region.

That doesn't explain how the AEC will make a difference to China. China already has access to all of those countries. What changes when the AEC kicks in?

Thailand was not ready for the 21st century,but they were dragged unto it with the rest of the world. Granted they were digging in their heels, kicking, screaming, crying, etc but they got here. Now if we can get them to play the same game using the same rules/playing field we might be able to sell tickets to the spectators so they can watch.

I am curious as to who "them" is. I mean to make the radical changes in policy requires the buy in of the oligarchs who control the country. Rationally, it could be posited that "they" would be the first group to want to get the changes done, but a contrary opinion is that they are just fine and don't want to change much of anything, especially in the areas of education, business rules, access to capital, etc. Thailand needs something akin to the Marshal Plan or the reconstruction of Japanese government and industry after WW2. Given the time constraints, there does not appear to be a clear path forward. The two examples mentioned above were undertaken after the complete destruction of entire counties. They were successful in a very short time frame because there would no alternatives short of starvation and anarchy. I sincerely wish Thailand a better road, but it takes change and the government needs to demonstrate that change. Examples: Require all business documents to be prepared in Thai and English with both have equal weight in the courts; Select a few hundred promising Thai English teachers and sent them to school in the U.S.A. or other counties that have excelled at ESL instruction; How about an English language news television station; encouragement through Thai television programming to make the changes.

There needs, for sure, to be movement. The time for studies and talking has run out. It is time to do things.

Thai Chinese run Thailand. Malaysian Chinese run Malaysia, Indonesian Chinese run Indonesia and Philipino Chinese run the Philipinnes. Does anyone really think they are going to let any pseudo region wide government rain on their patch and make them compete with each other for the benefit of consumers and the local populations?

If there is no economic upside to implementation for the oligarchs, then of course you are correct; nothing will happen and AEC will die quietly. But if you are correct, I am curious as to why everyone spend years talking about it. There was no one pushing that to happen and the stated political reason was to afford some protection from the Chinese juggernaut, but if China is in for a period of retrenchment, then there is less reason perhaps. Mai pben rai. We will see what happens. In my little economic world, if the TB continues to fall against the $, I am happy