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HRH Princess Maha
Chakri Sirindhorn visits Germany and DalmlerChrysler
H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, visited the
DaimlerChrysler plant in Sindelfingen and the University of Hohenheim
during her recent two-week trip to Germany.
 H.R.H.
Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn visited the DaimlerChrysler plant in
Sindelfingen.
The Princess was accompanied by a delegation which
included the Thai ambassador to Germany, Kasit Piromya. The royal visit
followed an invitation from Matthias Kleinert, the "foreign
minister" and senior vice president for External Affairs and Public
Policy at DaimlerChrysler. Kleinert had previously been in Thailand
putting a solar-powered fruit drying facility into operation - one of the
social projects which the corporation has been sponsoring in the Southeast
Asian country.
Since HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn is especially
interested in issues related to education and training, she not only
toured the Design Center during her visit to DaimlerChrysler’s largest
plant but also the training center, where she met with several trainees.
Matthias Kleinert took the opportunity to present an accomplished young
Thai scientist with a doctoral scholarship worth a total of DM 35,000.
Busarakorn Mahayothee from Silpakorn University will be working for her
doctorate in food science at the University of Hohenheim. At the
conclusion of her visit the Princess took a ride on the Karl Benz’s 1896
vehicle.
Afterwards, the Princess visited the University of
Hohenheim, where she was the guest of honor of the state government of
Baden-Wuerttemberg at a reception in the Hohenheim Palace. The Princess
subsequently visited the Institute for Food Technology, the Institute for
Agricultural Engineering in the Tropics and Subtropics and the German
Agricultural Museum.
The Princess and the delegation also visited the EXPO
2000 in Hanover, where DaimlerChrysler’s Lab.01 project is an official
part of the Children’s and Youth program. The Lab.01 invites children
and young people to experience the technology of the future, where they
can discover unexpected new interfaces between humans and machines -
controlled by hand, voice, eye and body movement.
During her visit to Germany, the two representatives of
DaimlerChrysler in Thailand, Karl-Heinz Heckhausen and Gerd-Udo Hauser,
accompanied the Princess.
Foreign Business Act of
1999 (part 3) Listed Activities
Courtesy of eThailand.com
A. List One activities
List One of the Foreign Business Act of 1999 (FBA)
contains activities that foreigners are prohibited from engaging in
"for special reasons".
In general terms, the activities relate to sensitive
areas such as publication and broadcasting of news, domestic agriculture,
trading in Thai antiquities and national historic objects, casting of
Buddha images and alms bowls and land trading.
B. List Two activities
List Two contains activities that are deemed to affect
Thailand’s national security, culture, natural resources or environment.
These activities will be permitted only with the
approval of the Thai Cabinet, and generally will require a minimum of 40
percent shareholding by Thais.
It might go without saying that a foreigner’s
obtaining approval from the Thai Cabinet to engage in a business will not
be easy.
Businesses included in List Two include firearms,
domestic transportation, trading in antiques, Thai arts or handicrafts,
production of specified handicrafts and similar products, and specified
mining, farming and wood fabrication activities.
C. List Three activities
List Three contains activities that are deemed to be
areas in which Thai businesses are not yet ready to compete.
These activities will be permitted to foreigners only
with the approval of the Director-General of the Commercial Registration
Department.
Unlike activities under Lists One and Two, it is
thought that a foreigner might have a reasonable opportunity to obtain
permission to engage in a List Three activity.
Moreover, List Three specifically identifies some
activities that foreigners are permitted to engage in, and provides for
the Director-General to issue regulations identifying additional service
activities that foreigners will likewise be permitted to engage in
(indeed, a draft regulation is being circulated in the Thai government
identifying several such service activities (see III(F) below).
D. Annual review of listed activities
The FBA requires that the content of the Lists be
reviewed annually, and that appropriate revisions be made. If a foreigner
establishes operation of a business that is subsequently placed onto one
of the lists, the foreigner’s business will be "grandfathered"
and allowed to continue doing business provided it gives timely notice to
the Commercial Registration Department.
E. Ability to engage in unlisted activities
If an activity is not included on one of the lists, a
foreigner is allowed to engage in such activity without a Foreign Business
License.
Essentially, the only requirement is that the foreigner
has capital of no less than 2 million baht.
F. Proposed regulation permitting certain service
activities
List Three provides that the Commercial Registration
Department can issue regulations excepting certain types of service
activities from the provisions of List Three.
Such service activities specified in a regulation will
be treated as an unlisted activity and no Foreign Business License will be
required. Under a draft regulation not yet in force, the following service
activities would be excepted from List Three:
i. Rental of property;
ii. "Leasing business" as defined under the Thai Revenue Code;
iii. Commercial banking;
iv. Lending of money;
v. Insurance business;
vi. Pawn shops;
vii. Taking of property on deposit;
viii. Warehousing;
ix. Operation of schools;
x. Operation of entertainment halls;
xi. Hair cutting, styling and operating beauty salons;
xii. Photography and operating photo shops;
xiii. Operating laundries;
xiv. Tailoring and dressmaking
Next week: Licensing criteria and procedures
TAT announces half-year
tourism figures
Tourism Authority of Thailand assistant director of
Region 3, Ms. Panjit Karawanan announced that 1.8 million tourists visited
Pattaya from January to July this year. The number represents a 5%
increase over last year.
An optimistic estimate puts the increase of tourism at
6% by the end of the year when the tourist high season gets underway. The
number of tourists from Europe and America starts to increase during this
period and according to a number of hotels in Pattaya, reservations are
exceeding last year’s bookings by nearly 50%.
Hotel industry figures show that more than 390,000 of
the visitors were from Thailand, and 1.4 million were from foreign
countries, with the majority of foreign visitors coming from China,
Germany and Taiwan.
Legal course being
offered for foreigners in Thailand
Expats in Thailand can sigh with relief, for there’s
finally a seminar in English coming up that’s practical and covers living,
working, and investing in Thailand. The two-day seminar - “Legal Guidance
for Foreigners: Investing and Living in Thailand” - will be sponsored by
the Dhurakijpundit University Faculty of Law.
The venue is the deluxe Regent Hotel, Bangkok, on
November 25-26, 2000. Top legal experts, some from the government, others
leading lawyers and academics, will discuss topics including: Thai law
involving land ownership; family law; laws relating to foreign investment;
alien business law; work permits; taxation; liability of corporate officers;
and intellectual property issues. Questions from participants will be
welcomed. Registration (early) for the course is only US$190 or Bt7,600 and
includes 2 luncheons and 4 coffee breaks at the Regent Hotel, plus written
documents and certificates of attendance.
To register, or for more information, contact the Faculty
of Law, Dhurakijpundit University at tel. 954-7300 ext. 326, 280, mobile
01-860-3932, fax 954-7353 (24 hour fax), or e-mail [email protected]
Thought for the week: Why
businesses fail - 3
by Richard Townsend,
Corporate Learning Consultant
http://www.orglearn.org
Poor sales performance leading to a lousy cash flow!
Analysis of the reasons why businesses fail will point us
to the fact that poor sales performance is a major contributor to the demise
of many. Obvious on the surface but what’s the problem? Changes in the
market place, technological advances, disruption of key relationships and
poor sales planning are all major contributors to sales failure. Over
dependence on one customer (who suddenly disappears), or key product/s that
can rapidly become outdated, can, and often will, lead to our downfall. If
it is in fact a major paradigm shift in our business (and for many at the
moment I believe it is), everyone goes back to zero.
So when the sales plan is done who is involved? It should
be the entire executive team supported by all the sales staff and any
outside consultants that contribute to the sales and marketing efforts.
Advertising agents, marketing and PR consultants and yes even the financial
advisors, economists and political scientists. All departments must get on
board with the concept that ‘the only reason a company has to exist is to
serve a customer’ and that ‘nothing happens until somebody sells
something’ (for a profit). Some ‘dot coms’ and their hapless, over
optimistic (foolish?) investors are starting to find this out; investors
can’t fund the party forever, even at the current levels of stupidity.
The almost sickening pace of ever changing market
conditions means annual sales budgets are a thing of the past. Living plans,
or at least quarterly targeting are needed in the current environment. How
quickly do motor vehicle models change, telephone systems evolve and
computers become outdated? How quickly does a fickle customer base move to a
new brand or a make substitute buying decision? OK, take an old economy
business: hotels. Economic troubles in the Asian region (not to mention
civil unrest and smoke haze) are not doing much for the tourist industry.
Even business travellers have fallen away due to the lousy (some say
corrupt) business practices in some countries and the even more (some say)
corrupt governments that allow them to flourish. Sure you can argue that the
existing hotel properties were powerless to do anything about it, but which
smart international CEO decided to build even more hotels and create an even
bigger supply of rooms in what is an already over serviced market? Sales
potentials need to influence ALL spending decisions.
Some hotels demonstrate the dangers in needing to rely
heavily on one market segment (and the old way of doing things). Many
don’t train their staff in modern anything, let alone selling. A recent
tourism publication says that Thailand (a great holiday destination) is
going to lose major market share because it can’t find trained managers to
run its tourism related businesses. I mean the entire country may well
suffer because a few key industry operators are too shortsighted to invest
in the ‘soft skills’ needed for the future. Then again look at the
market itself. Say we decide to cater to the government sector, which
through budget restraints suddenly decides meetings and conferences are out.
How about if we rely on the Japanese tour markets and the economy collapses
and oops no customers and a lot of highly paid Japanese speaking staff who
are doing little more than eating up the payroll budget.
Final sales thoughts next issue
To contact Ric mail to: [email protected]
Printing diaries for the staff or customers for 2001? Why
not add some business “Thoughts for the Week” to the back of each weekly
page, just a few tips may help business along! Price US$0.02 (only two
cents) per article per diary for print runs up to 4999, or US$0.01 (yes one
cent) per article per diary for print runs 5000 and above. Learning... the
only way forward! Contact Ric ( [email protected]
)
Copyright 2000 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20260, Thailand
Tel.66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax:66-38 427 596; e-mail: [email protected]
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