Health insurance vs non o visa

[Jonathan Fairfield]

PM targets improvement in ease of doing business

Registration of business to take only one day and construction permit process to be speeded up

BANGKOK:-- THE PRIME Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has given priority to policies which involve increasing the ease of doing business in Thailand, the government has said.

The registering of a business will now take only one working day while other major barriers, such as the process required to get a construction permit, will be simplified this quarter, said Somkid Jatusripitak, deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs.

"The prime minister chaired a meeting today [of the Council of Economic Ministers] for the first time because he sees the increase in the ease of doing business, or the eradication of business and investment barriers, as one of the most important aspects that will increase the investments in Thailand," Somkid said.

The Kingdom's ranking in the World Bank's "Doing Business" report for 2016 has slipped from 46th place in 2015 to 49th among the 189 economies covered.

"Our ranking has dropped partly because of our complacency, as we were comfortable with where we were so certain things have not been improve," he said.

"And another reason might be because there are so many government agencies that do not communicate with the international community. Therefore, they do not have enough understanding of what we are doing, which led to the undesirable result after the assessment."

Somkid said these problems were easy to fix since they were like "taking home maths homework" and you had a list of what needed to be done.

The first step towards fixing the problems was the Commerce Ministry and Labour Ministry shortening the business registration process via the introduction of a one-stop service at the ministries.

The Industry Ministry had earlier shortened the time required to obtain a Ror Ngor 4 permit for manufacturing operations from a maximum of 90 days to no more than 30 days.

The ministry and the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning are working on ways to simplify the process required to obtain a construction licence and should announce the details this quarter.

The process required for a project to get environmental impact assessment approval is also expected to be reduced through greater collaboration, the use of existing data and using foreign firms to help with EIA assessments especially large projects such as road and rail constructions.

"The ministries said they were ready to make this work today and we will have to see the response from the private sector regarding their effectiveness," Somkid said.

The Food and Drug Administration's approval process, especially for permits to sell medication, is expected to be shortened by increasing the department's staff numbers and providing it with the equipment needed for inspections.

Prime Minister Prayut promised the department at yesterday's meeting that this would happen, as the country is trying to promote medical clusters, Somkid revealed.

"The main issues regarding the ease of doing business in Thailand will be solved by the fourth quarter of this year and there will be another follow-up meeting to find out if there is progress and to see if the barriers are still there," he said.

Meanwhile, the Special Economic Zones Committee will be transform into a community to promote foreign and domestic investment in the clusters and the border SEZs that are being created with a tasked to lure foreign investors and encourage domestic businesses to invest now.

"The stimulus measures that have been introduced are beginning to take effect…so we need the increases in private investment to come in and support the measures to increase domestic consumption and government spending that has introduced at the right time in order to propelled the economic momentum and then the U or V shaped recovery will be possible," he concluded.

"Within the fourth quarter the capital that we have injected into the economic system will start to take effect where two-third of it have been disbursed and there is already creating momentum so we need to increase the amount of foreign investment, encourage our own to invest and to improve the ease of doing business in this country to improve our rating" he added.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/PM-targets-improvement-in-ease-of-doing-business-30272438.html

-- The Nation 2015-11-07

[KhunBENQ]

He would better think about opening more businesses to foreigners to profit from experience, get some knowledge how to proper handle a business (not only in SEZ ghettos).

Just dreaming

Edited November 7, 2015 by KhunBENQ

[Expat1]

What is the old expression, "Best laid plans o' mice and men, gang aft agely" well, this is more of the case of, Ministry, bureaucracy and Pornchai.

I really believe if they improved the items they expressed in the article that there would be greater interest here in doing business here BUT, all here are aware of the problem with the inertia here. They (bureaucrats) get instructions and they run around implementing as fast as possible but, then inertia kicks in and it all slows back to business and bureaucracy as before. It is cultural. Which is a shame but, a reality nonetheless. Now there can be change but, it would require reconfiguring the entire system whereby there would be large firings and new technical type hires and increased computerization and create a new system that would force them to use that new system and methods and not allow them to go back to the old system which would not be possible by definition of the new system.

I watched Singapore and Malaysia do this very thing in the 1980s and 1990s respectively. They had the same lethargic bureaucratic systems in place back then, believe me, it was not that much different then Thailand is now in that regard but they did the aforementioned and the new systems forced them (their bureaucrats) to comply and they could not physically go back to the old ways. It will work here but again, will the Thai bureaucrats wear it. Can they afford it? Can they not afford to do it? That is the billion dollar business question.

Edited November 7, 2015 by Expat1

[Thaidream]

Why would a foreign investor want to come to Thailand. The whole visa issue and crackdown have told investors that they are not stable in Thailand. Yes, I know that these type of Visas are not the same an investor would obtain- but that person doesn't know the difference. Then there is the problem of using Thai labor which is higher than its neighbors. If the government really wants investment it has to stop targeting foreigners as the reason for every ill in the country. Instead of driving foreigners out unless they are married to Thais or over 50 they need to be relaxing their long term Visas and make them affordable. Neighboring countries and others in South America do not have these type of restrictions.There is a perception in the World that Thailand is not friendly to foreigners The only reason the Thai Baht has not depreciated any further is that they are intervening on the currency market. It really needs to go to 37-38 Baht to the US Dollar and 58-59 to the Pound. If they do not stop the intervention, a repeat of the Tom Yam Kung crisis, a la 1997, is around the corner.

[Srikcir]

It's more than just complacency. It's that there are government officials and agents who have little or no loyalty or sense of duty to the Thai people. It is instead dedicated to cliches, personalities, and rewards. This results in inconsistent treatment of businesses, discriminatory practices and the trivialization of the laws. Thanks in no small part to the Junta whose standards for the rule of law under Article 44 are based on personal judgements and reversals.

You can't expect current Thai society to foster a favorable investment environment when it is led by organizations not accountable to a system of checks and balances.

[kinmaew]

If you had 1B to invest in IT infrastructure would you rather in invest in a county run by a bunch of grovelling worms and cronies forced to employ incompetent staff and minority share or a country where they could not care less who you hire as long as the job is done and you can own whatever you like as long as you have the cash?

[Baerboxer]

It's more than just complacency. It's that there are government officials and agents who have little or no loyalty or sense of duty to the Thai people. It is instead dedicated to cliches, personalities, and rewards. This results in inconsistent treatment of businesses, discriminatory practices and the trivialization of the laws. Thanks in no small part to the Junta whose standards for the rule of law under Article 44 are based on personal judgements and reversals.

You can't expect current Thai society to foster a favorable investment environment when it is led by organizations not accountable to a system of checks and balances.

Shameful - the pretense this is all down to the Junta,

What did PTP do, or any of Thaksin's parties to improve bureaucracy, corruption and change laws to improve the situation for foreign investors? Nothing.

It suits the Thai elite establishment to run things this way. A nice closed shop with rules, laws and tax regimes which protect and enhance their money spinning businesses.

Thaksin never wanted to change that, and neither will the current government be allowed to.