Doing Business in Thailand

While the purpose of this blog is to inform on how to do business and not to do politic I will nevertheless from time to time dedicate a post to Thai Political Crisis. Indeed Thai Political crisis that has been ongoing since September 2006 has dramatically affected Thai society as a whole and also have caused a lot of distress within the local business community and also the foreign business community with an important diminution of foreign direct investment.

Now after a few months of relative peace several events have occurred during the last two weeks and I’m not sure at this stage which way things will go. The Red Shirt, the supporters of former Prime Ministry Thaksin Shinawatra are back with a petition to request that the King pardon the former Prime Minister. Furthermore a huge gathering of Red Shirts is scheduled for the end of this month. This could not come at a worth time for the current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva who have recently been humiliated as a result of the failure of the Police Commission to endorse his candidate as the new Police Chief. This failure is quite surprising because the Prime Minister and other ministers and government officer’s part of the commission have the majority.

But the most important even of the week was that the King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, made a rare speech to an audience at his seaside palace late Friday that was later broadcast on national television and radio and reported by Thai-language newspapers.

Now the King said “Recently I feel that our country could fail, because nobody is working in harmony. They are competing with each other and no one understands what the other is doing,” then he also said, “I want to assure you that if everybody who is competent and has good intentions works together then we can make our country truly prosperous. So I ask all of you to cooperate, because if you don’t our country will fall,” and finally “Our country will not collapse if everybody works together, especially all knowledgeable people,” he said.

Hopefully the political community will hear this message of reconciliation, follow the recommendation of the King and work towards reconciliation. I certainly hope so Thai society and Thai business community certainly need to be given a break.

About the Author:

The author Rene-Philippe DUBOUT is a lawyer since 1990 when he was admitted to Geneva bar (Switzerland). He practiced as a litigator there for 10 years until he moved to Thailand in 1999. In 2002 he founded with a group of Thai lawyers Rene Philippe & Partners Ltd a local law firm that specialized in Cross Borders Investments and Real Estate. He has been lecturing in several Thai Universities and a speaker to numerous conferences and seminars. He is the author of a must read book:”How to Purchase Real Estate Offshore Safely: The Case of Thailand”.

http//:www.renephilippe.com

© Copyrights 2009 – Rene Philippe Dubout – This article may be reprinted if information about the author, the websites, and the URLs remain intact.

Originally posted 2009-08-23 13:49:56.

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