Chua

The best way for Thailand to continue to ruinits reputation in the global community as a bungling, inept, backwards, and xenophobic country would be to abolish the Thailand Elite car, which has already sold >2,500 lifetime of benefits at 1,000,000Thai Baht each to the wealthiest and most influential investors in Thailand.  Are these really the 2500 people Thailand wants to royal piss off?  They don't want their money back -- they want the privileged and benefits they paid for.   Its no worth any law suits or more bad PR -- rather at least  just honor these memberships already sold. Otherwise they risk the most severe and significant downgrade in the highest end segment of foreign Thai investors, which could cripple the Thai economy.

The smart move would be to keep Thai Elite going, even if the program itself has a loss.   The overall benefit in terms of infux of huge foreign capital investment alone is worth it.

Some facts:

The American Amity treaty has nothing to do with land ownership.  The Amity treaty with America allows US citizens to own up to 100% of a Thai company, but those Thai companies are restricted from certain types of business operations, including land ownership.

There is a special rule allowing wealthy foreigners (those investing 40 million THB into Thai businesses or markets) to directly own up to 1 Rai of land, but this is subject to approval of the Interior Ministry and is usually only granted for multinational business owners, ambassadors and other diplomatic/political figures.

If a farrang married to a Thai purchases a land in Thailand, the land can only be in the name of the Thai spouse plus the farrang must sign a document stating that all the money used for the purchase belongs to the Thai spouse.  The foreigner is not in any way the owner of such property.   In the event of a divorce, the foreigner has no rights and no claim for the property.   In the event of the death of the Thai spouse with no other surviving Thai relatives, the property must be sold within 1 year some other Thai entity.

The process of using Thai Nominees within land owning companies who are not legitimate Thai partners is already illegal under Thai law.  In the last several years, land office officials have routinely been checking the Thai shareholders within land owning companies for much more carefully.

If a foreigner has legitimate Thai partners, they may legally own up to 49% of a Thai land owning company, but that doesn't mean they own 49% of the land.   It means they are a minority shareholder in a Thai company, while the Thai company is the entity which owns the land.   That's a big difference.

There are also perfectly legal and legitimate Thai condos which can be owned 100% directly in a foreigner's name.  The foreigner only has a fractional share of interest in the underlying land -- a tenancy in common -- yet in aggregate, the foreign ownership of any condo complex cannot be greater than 49%, and the foreigner has no right to any specific piece of the land and can do nothing with it, other than the space within the condo apartment itself.

Foreigners can also own leasehold property (with lease terms up to 30 years, potentially renewable) directly in their own name, however, that is not ownership, it is a limited term lease.

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To the extent that foreigners have invested in Thai property, this is a very good thing for the Thai economy and Thai real estate owners because it directly supports the Thai real estate market.   Think for a second what would happen if foreigners who have already invested in the Thai real estate market were forced to sell?   Hypothetically, if that happened, there would be an increase in supply of real estate and the reduced demand (because land investment would then be limited to Thais only).  Economy 101: increased supply + reduced demand, results in a marker crash; the Thai real estate market would plummet to all time lows.  All the other existing Thai property owners would see their property values incur a huge loss -- and most of this land is owned by very wealthy, influential, and powerful Thai people.   They would never stand for such a thing and thus for this reason, you will never see any new restrictions on foreign ownership of land; it is already quite restricted.   To the contrary, the general trend, with the failure of the previously proposed amendments to FBA (which would have restricted foreign voting rights in Thai companies), the recent condo act law which allows foreign ownership of that type of property along with the plan currently being discussed in parliament to allow 100-year leases to foreigners are quite helpful and supportive of the Thai real estate market and the overall Thai economy.  This trend is moving in a positive direction.

Now Thailand is beginning to wake up and realize that in order to be a viable economic power in the world today, it needs an infusion of foreign capital investment and thus must compete with other countries to attract that capital.   This means it is important to move away from isolationist protectionism and towards a more constructive, attractive, favourable environment; one where foreigners will feel more confident and comfortable bringing their money into Thailand.

As another member noted already, at least make the slogan grammatically correct if you are going to advertise to English speakers!   Correctly phrased in proper English, it should be: "The miracle of Thailand" or better yet an active command, such as, "Enjoy the Miracle of Thailand".

Far better would be something that avoids the religious connotation of "miracle" altogether.  

How about: "Adventure In Thailand!"  That statement (which is also a suggested action) would encourage those seeking a lively and interesting holiday with action and activity that will drive the type of tourists who spend more money inside Thailand, vs. the ones who just laze about drinking and sitting on the beach all day.   Thailand has many beautiful and interesting sites and activities which are rare in most first world countries; but most tourists are not aware of these.   So those active, adventurous, and interesting things to do in Thailand are worthy of promoting.

Hello TAT are you listening?

Machine readable passports have existed in most first-world countries for years, so why not offer auto-gates for all farrang passengers who have machine-readable passports as well?   The biggest lines have always been for farrang and the vast majority of international travelers coming through BKK are farrang.   A recent article states that the Thai government wants to make BKK a regional hub.   Great idea, but this is only going to happen when it is at least as convenient and comfortable as other major regional airports.   They can start by adding some padding to those most uncomfortable metal seats and some better quality restaurants (but not at high prices).

blackthorn2005, on 2012-01-25 14:12:25, said:

Simply log out.