Thai Biz 101 - Doing Business in Thailand

Sutlet Group today announces that they have joined the New Zealand-Thai Chamber of Commerce in Thailand.

This further extends their business presence, which already including being Annual Sponsors of the British Chamber of Commerce Thailand (BCCT), and Members of the Australian Chamber of Commerce Thailand (AustCham). Stuart Blott, General Manager, said “we felt that the New Zealand Chamber represented a great opportunity for the Sutlet Group. Whilst smaller than the others, it is a professionally run Chamber with an excellent selection of Members”.

Sutlet Group’s team of senior managers will begin attending events at the Chamber shortly, and look forward to meeting their fellow members.

For more information on the Sutlet Group, Thailand’s leading provider of business solutions and support services, please see here.

As everyone has seen on the news over the past 6 weeks, Thailand is currently experiencing some very serious political problems. Red shirt demonstrators are protesting against the current government, in the hope of calling new elections within the next month. These protests have occasionally turned violent and, tragically, lives have been lost in the fighting. At the time of writing, there still appears to be no logical solution to solving the problems, and even quick fixes (like military intervention) are just that… a quick fix.

We have been asked by numerous people overseas - how is it all effecting business in Thailand? This is an excellent question.

For the vast majority of businesses, we are attempting to continue as normal, although with constant disruptions taking place as a result of the red shirt activities, this is becoming harder and harder to achieve. On a daily basis, we need to check whether the BTS skytrain and MRT underground are actually functioning, and also whether new road blocks are disrupting traffic in certain areas. We have a dedicated person in the office responsible for checking the news and advising the team of new events and problems to be mindful of. On several occasions we have closed the office early, or even all day, in order to avoid potential problems for our staff getting to and from work.

Imagine the lost working hours because of all of this - and this is for a company located several km from the trouble spots.

We have clients, partners and suppliers who have offices in the trouble spots, and many of them simply do not want to ask their staff to go to work. One partner of ours has decided to tell their staff to work from home, whilst others in their team are working from our office. This is an incredible disruption to his business activities.

Meetings are generally going ahead for businesses - but everyone is making allowances for late arrivals and traffic problems. Chamber Events have been postponed or canceled in some cases, but in most they continue. Many companies and groups are turning to teleconferencing and video conferencing as a solution.

Almost all companies here have accepted that 2010 and even 2011 are going to be hard years now. This is especially true of those working in tourism and hospitality, we some hotels reporting occupancy drops of 90%. compared to last year.

At the Sutlet Group, we are therefore making plans to work within the problems, rather than use them as an excuse. Our focus will turn to providing clients with cost-efficient solutions aimed at reducing costs. This will be addressed in the next post.

How are are troubles effecting your business? Let us know.

Hello to all our readers!

We do apologise for our lengthy absence, but Thai Biz 101 is now back and will be posting regularly in conjunction with the Sutlet Group, PB Legal Services and FCA Thailand (all providing business services and solutions to Thailand’s corporate community).

As an update - Sutlet Group has been very busy over the past few months, recruiting the management team necessary to take the business to the next level. This includes:

Stuart Blott as our new General Manager - Stuart has 9 years of management experience in Thailand has has worked in IT, membership programs, tourism & hospitality and corporate team building. With an eye for operations and marketing, Stuart aims to lead the team to new levels of performance and customer service delivery. Stuart is based at our Bangkok office.

David Mitchell as our new Business Development Manager, with a focus on financial solutions and accounting. David will be based at our new Pattaya office and will oversea all financial services, providing our clients with a level of expertise unparalleled in Thailand. Davids international success and experience has involved both private sector and senior government enterprises.

One last Sutlet Group update! Our Chairman, Chris Thatcher, was recently elected to the British Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors! Congratulations to Chris.

Thats all for now - keep posted for more Thai Biz 101 updates!

We have mentioned before that the immigration office will be moving soon.

The new location has been determined but the date has not.

The latest news is that the new office will be open 1 September, 2009.

We will keep updating as we get more news.

Thanks!

On 23rd July 2009, the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) and the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand (JFCCT) held a seminar at the United Nations Conference Center. The Seminar was called Looking Forward - numerous speakers discussed the current investment climate in Thailand and put forth many ideas about securing a better future for Thailand.

Nandor von der Luehe, the Chairman of the JFCCT - also presented at the Seminar with a vision for concrete steps that could be taken to increase FDI in Thailand. Below is a small synopsis. All of the content from the Seminar can be found online.

Nandor von der Luehe identified the current needs as being:

• Opening up the Services Sector
• Review of the Foreign Business Act lists
• Liberalisation of services - implementing reforms and changes
• Reform and liberalise ICT
• Streamline Labour and Immigration
• Revise the Property Laws
• Introduce a Business Visa

In April The Nation announced that the Social Security Office was going to announce a cut in the rate that employees and employers pay to the Social Security Fund. Currently the rate is 5% and a possible reduction of 3% was discussed. This was reported back in April but nothing was signed until the 9th of July and a reduction will be effective from July until December of this year. The rate will only be reduced by 2% - thus the current rate of Social Security deductions will be 3%.

This was to be formally announced on July 14th but has yet to be announced in the English language newspapers. The rate will return to 5% starting in Jan 2010. It is hoped that the reduction will benefit local businesses during a time of weak export demand, lower tourist arrival numbers and a local recession.