Will Thailand be Risky for Travel and Investment ?

----- Interview with Consul-general of Royal Thailand in Shanghai  

1. Joy Communications（Joyc.biz）: Whenever Chinese tourists travel to Southeast Asian countries, the most common package recommended by travel agencies includes Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.  Due to the political turmoil in Thailand over the past few years, the recommended package has changed to include just Singapore and Malaysia.  So far, does the tourism figure rebound heavily, especially in your administrative areas, Shanghai municipality, Jiangsu province, Zhejiang province and Anhui province, would you list the statistics to illustrate Chinese tourism in Thailand?

 Mr. Piroon Laismit: As you know, from the beginning, Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand was the most popular Chinese vacation.  That started about 20 years ago.  Thailand is a very popular country where Chinese people like to travel. Every year, between 900,000 to 1million Chinese tourists visit Thailand.
 
Over the past several years, the political crisis in Thailand has caused the Chinese authority to stop allowing Chinese tourists to travel to Thailand. Furthermore, in the last few months, not only the amount of Chinese tourists has decreased, but also the amount of tourists from other countries.

We understand that the tourists need to be safe. Even I would not travel if I heard about a crisis in a country to which I would normally travel.

Actually the political crisis only happened in one area, Bangkok, not the entire country.  Even in Bangkok, it was only in one area of the city.  The perception of the crisis grew because the media coverage.  Among all of the media and television were CCTV and even the BBC.  They had live reports from Bangkok every hour, so the impact on tourism was great.

The Chinese people like to travel to Thailand for many reasons:

First, we have the same and common culture;

Second, Thailand is not far away from China;

Third, Thailand has many beautiful places for sightseeing like temples and beaches.  We also have high quality hotel services.   We can say that we are one of the most charming countries in the world. So, I know that not only Chinese people, but also many foreigners like to visit Thailand.

The political crisis is only temporary.  The ideas of some of the political parties in Thailand are in conflict with the Country.   Actually, we can settle this issue in our Country through the Parliament. 

We are democratic Country. The people just want to demonstrate their philosophies. In our Country, we allow people to express their thinking, but they have to follow the rules of law.  This time, they went beyond what the law allows, and that is what caused the current political crisis.  Finally, the government can control the situation through the legal process.

We had a crisis in March of 2010 that lasted until May of 2010. But during that time, some Chinese business people still traveled to Thailand for business.
 
In my administrative area (Zhejiang province, Jiangsu province, Anhui province and Shanghai), we normally receive 1000 applications for tourism per day, but during crisis, the number dropped to only 100-200 per day.

After the crisis, the Chinese authority allowed the Chinese people to travel to Thailand again.  At that point, the applications rebounded.  Yesterday (Oct. 26th, 2010), for example, there were 1,900 people that applied for a Thailand tourism visa.  Since the political crisis, we decided to run a special to promote tourism in Thailand.  You usually pay RMB 230 yuan for a tourism application, but we waived the tourist visa fee from March 2010 until then end of 2010.

One month before the 2010 Spring Festival, we had about 15,000 applications in January; this was only in our Shanghai Consulate General. One month before 2010 National Day, the applications in a month was about 30,000 to 35,000. I would like to thank the Chinese People for their interest in our country. I may confirm to all the Chinese people that the system in Thailand is fine. Your safety traveling in Thailand is secured, because all the issues went to parliament for discussion. They are not allowed to go on in the street. The business continues, as usual.

We are called “The Land of Smiles”.   From a long, long time ago, we always warmly welcome foreigners to our country. This is the Thai culture.

Up to now, China has been one of the top 5 investors in Thailand. In the first 6 months of 2010, there were about 15 to 16 Chinese projects that have applied for the investment promotion in Thailand.  The value of these projects was about US $6 million.

Some western media show research that Thailand is a very good place to invest in, because of our regulations and laws that protect investors. When foreign investors invest in Thailand, they receive the same treatment as the Thai people. If they have problems with their business, they can go to the courts for a resolution, this is the International standard. That is one of reasons that many foreign companies especially from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and even America and European countries have invested a lot in Thailand.

I can show you the figures from the Board of Investment in Thailand.

From January to September, the first nine months of 2010, Japan is the highest investor in Thailand.   They invested in 256 projects worth US $ 1840 million; Spain is the second highest investor, with US $733 million for half of the amount of projects as Japan; Singapore is the third as they applied for 48 projects investing US$ 295million; China is the fourth and has 22 projects worth about US $ 286 million; and the US is the fifth, they applied for 27 projects worth about US $ 93 million.

I would like to say that the political crisis in Thailand is just temporary; the whole year is very good for investors. Even in the crisis, a Chinese company in the rubber industry had investment in Thailand. Thailand has the best quality rubber.

Also, Thailand and China have an investment protection agreement that has been in effect for more than 20 years. The investment law and system in Thailand is quite standard.  When you have business abuse, you can go to the court very easily.

Many people may not know the details of a political crisis, they only heard them via media. Actually there are several factors to consider when make an investment. First is law and regulation; second is labor force, resources and market; third is taxation and transportation; forth is facility and environment. Politics is one of the factors, but not the whole thing.

And also every time the crisis in Thailand is temporarily, it lasts about 2 or 3 months. I understand politics very well. In the long term, it is ok and no problem. we are a constitutional monarchy and also quite friendly to foreigners.

Every time we have a political crisis, the Thai people try to settle down and solve the problem for the King. This is quite different from other countries. If the system of Thailand is not well, then why did Japanese companies invest US $1840 million in Thailand in only 9 months?

Again, in Thailand every time there is a political crisis it is only temporarily,

not like some other countries, where the conflicts never end.

3.Joy Communications（Joyc.biz）: What type of business/trade in?Thailand do business persons from your administrative area get involved in most?

Mr. Piroon Laismit: In this area, actually you may know very well,

“Zhengda Group”, they produce food for animals. They have many factories throughout China. There are 33 to 34 Lotus Supermarkets in all of China. In Shanghai alone, they have 20 supermarkets. They also have a large mall in Shanghai.

Because Shanghai is going to be the world’s financial center in next 10 years, we have a banking business. We also have Thai food businesses here. There are about 23 Thai typical fruits in China, like Longyan and Xiangjiao.

Thai restaurants and places that offer Thai massage are thriving here. We have double A company, some manufacturers and international school in Shanghai. Central Group which is very popular in Thailand already has its first department store in Hangzhou, and is now looking for location in Shanghai.

I think more and more Thai businesses will come to China, especially in greater Shanghai area which has a lot of economic potential.

When we organized the Thai Trade Fairs in Zhenda Square, we were trying to introduce and promote Thai products, featuring the best quality Thai products to Chinese customers.

4. Joy Communications（Joyc.biz）:  Shanghai is undoubtedly the most active place in your administrative areas.  Are there other provinces or cities that are also active?  If so, which ones does Thailand?have the most cooperation with? And in which business fields?

Mr. Piroon Laismit: Thai businesses in my administrative area go beyond Shanghai.  They go to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and even Anhui province. Zhengda Group also has animal food manufacturers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, as well as in a lot of other provinces in China.

Since Shanghai and Zhejiang have very good harbors, our products come through these channels many times every year.  I think another area we are very interested in is Nanjing in Jiangsu, but we need to study more about the market.

Ningbo will set up a duty-free area, which will make Ningbo the center of importing goods.

5．Joy Communications（Joyc.biz）:  Even though the cultures of China and Thailand are quite similar, are there any differences?

Mr. Piroon Laismit: As you may know, in Thailand there are a lot of Chinese offspring, like myself.   I am the second generation Chinese, but I was born in Thailand. There are many people in Thailand that are of Chinese and Thai mix, in this area, we can say our cultures are quite similar. But Thailand also has a different culture from China. We are a Buddhist country.

Thai people like China very much, every year there are about 400,000 to 500,000 Thai people that travel to China for tourism and about 900,000 to 1 million Chinese tourists come to Thailand, as I mentioned earlier.

China is also well developed in many areas, like technology and IT.  We can learn from China in the area of technology. Your country is developing faster than Thailand. Thailand is quite good at producing agricultural products; this is another area that we can cooperate with each other.

Five years ago, Thailand signed a MOU with China for cooperation in 15 areas at the government level to promote the exchange of knowledge, trading goods, etc.

6. Joy Communications（Joyc.biz）: Tell us about your experience in China.

Mr. Piroon Laismit: I have lived in China for almost 8 years. I first came to China in 1983 as a junior diplomat for the Thailand embassy in Beijing.  I worked there for 4 years. Then I come back again to Beijing in 2007 for 2 years. In September 2009, I came to Shanghai as the Consul-general of Thailand Consulate General in Shanghai. During these periods, I left China for 20 years and worked in other countries. I love China best among these countries.  She is the country I lived in for the longest time, and I can say that she is like my second home. My first job as a diplomat was in China, now I am back again.

I learned Chinese in Beijing, University in Thailand, from watching television, my colleagues and I also found I can learn it from Karaoke, as a good listener.

7．Joy Communications（Joyc.biz）: Thanks very much,.Mr. Laismit.

Mr. Piroon Laismit: My Pleasure.

Please Note. The interview was conducted at the end of Oct. in 2010.