The Manufacturing Focus Group (MFG) threw its energies and ideas into an open forum, held at the Holiday Inn last week.
The panel discussion centered on Transfer Pricing issues and Government changes, followed by an address by the South African Ambassador Geoffrey Doidge on “Investment opportunities in South Africa’s Automotive Sector.”
The interested members of the MFG bounced ideas with the panel, consisting of Ariya Thepchalem – PKF who has had 20 years’ experience in tax, accounting and advisory for a wide range of companies in Thailand and 10 years’ experience in liaising with TRD auditing, Corporate Income Tax and VAT refund audit.
The others on the panel consisted of Till Morstadt who has been an equity partner of Lorenz & Partners since April 2004. He regularly publishes articles and holds seminars on investment, tax and law related issues in Thailand and Southeast Asia.
The panel opened with the His Excellency, the South African Ambassador Geoffrey Doidge, a career diplomat, who addressed the Manufacturing members on the Automotive sector opportunities in South Africa.
With BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Isuzu, Nissan, Toyota and VW already building cars, the trend is upwards, with 600,000 vehicles built last year and the new government aiming for one million within the next five years, HE Doidge was very positive.
A second panel discussion followed with spirited discussion on Transfer Pricing and a veritable sea of acronyms as the panel and the MFG members tried to follow the high powered financial directions from the Revenue Department.
Fortunately, the financial restrictions being debated were significant for those member companies returning taxable incomes of more than 200 million THB, and not so much for the SME’s.
With a new government being formed, it was the impression that even more new laws would be enacted as the local industries met the new Global Pricing Strategy.
It was very evident that the new MFG will be a very reliable information source for manufacturing businesses in Thailand.
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