DEAR FRIENDS AND MEMBERS OF THE STCC

Transcription

1 TOP NEWS Deutsche Bank: Beyond expectations Legal: BOI Smart Visa, from 1 st Feb onwards / School News: Alumni Reunion on January 12th, 2018 / Iceskating and Bowling Trip / Invitation to the Open House Day SUPPORTED BY THE PRESIDENT S MESSAGE DEAR FRIENDS AND MEMBERS OF THE STCC PRESIDENT BRUNO G. ODERMATT Switzerland is unique in many ways. Whenever I meet with Thai business colleagues, the question comes up as to how this small nation is so successful with such a high living standard and what key concerns do its citizens have. For more than 40 years, Credit Suisse has conducted a Worry and Identity Barometer to examine these issues exactly. In the 2017 Worry Barometer (source GFS Bern research institute), it is amazing to note that the Swiss believe in their institutions like no other countries do. Some 66% of the people surveyed expressed their trust in the Federal Supreme Court, 60% in the Federal Counsel, and 56% in the Counsel of States and National Counsel. Even the Police and Public Administration were ranked at 56% and 55% respectively. This is truly remarkable when you consider the international/ global loss of trust in political leadership and institutions, as seen in a number of States in Europe and North America. When asked about which geographical entity people identify the most with, 34% mentioned Switzerland. Language region, canton of residence and municipality of residence declined sharply compared to the last years. One could argue that there is some national cohesion prevalent - one might call it, National Pride or We are Swiss. Looking at some of our national ambassadors like Roger Federer, showcasing Swiss values around the world, one would argue that Switzerland is indeed a unique country. Not surprisingly, most survey correspondents are worried about their retirement, in SERVICE STCC CALENDAR Thursday 8th February 2018: STCC Stamm at Arnoma Hotel, 18:00 Thursday 22nd February 2018: GTCC Joint Chambers Marriott Marquis Queenspark 11:30-14:00 Thailand Economic Outlook 2018 Friday, 2rd February 2018: AustCham Joint Chambers Novotel Sukhumvit 20 12:00 BOI Policies + Plans for Investment in Thailand Thursday 8th March 2018: STCC Stamm at Arnoma Hotel, 18:00 Wednesday, 14th March 2018: Swiss Society 1

2 THE PRESIDENT S MESSAGE particular whether the state s old pension scheme (AHV) is sustainable and will ensure them a decent quality of life in their golden years. 44% of those surveyed were concerned about the Swiss pension system, making unemployment drop for the first time from the top of the worry list of Swiss citizens. Retirement funding will be a pressing issue for politicians and this topic could well shape the social climate in the coming years. Other major concerns were foreigners and integration, asylum issues, health insurance, and the status of the bilateral agreements with the European Union. Additionally, a popular Swiss initiative called say yes to abolishing radio and television fees, aims to abolish the radio and television reception fees, which are quite considerable. It may well test the nation on the issue of national cohesion, as a substantial radio and television fee is currently collected so that all different language regions get suitable coverage of culture, economics, sports and politics. Considering the Swiss system of direct democracy and multilingualism, a varied media offering is important to Switzerland. Switching to a system of solely commercial funding would mean that only programmes that yield a profit would be produced. Needless to say, the outcome of the 4th March vote might well reshape the media diversity and opinion formation in Switzerland. New businesses registered in Thailand in 2017 reached a five year high, and a total of 74,571 companies were registered (source Commerce Ministry). Compared to 2016, it was a 16% increase and might be a direct result of the government s tax incentives to support individual entrepreneurs, in addition to the government s business promotion and infrastructure investment. Some of the government measures will support SMEs looking to renovate facto- SUPPORTED BY SERVICE TRINA INTERNATIONAL Thursday 29th March 2018: STCC AGM at Arnoma Hotel, 17:30 Thursday 12th April 2018: STCC Stamm at Arnoma Hotel, 18:00 More details for above events please wait for the invitation-mail or get it from click on events. Adhesive & Sealant Technologies MS Hybrid Polymer best performing window, door and facade sealant. Southeast Asia Link Co., Ltd. T:

3 THE PRESIDENT S MESSAGE ry machinery, implement training programmes, purchase materials and acquire managerial talents. Supporting entrepreneurship and making life easier for small businesses, which form the backbone of the Thai economy, is a sensible strategy and should produce tangible long-term results. As this newsletter goes into production, you should have received a reminder to attend our Annual General Meeting on Thursday 29th March, and nominate candidates to the Board of Directors. If you feel that you would make a valuable contribution to the Swiss community in Thailand, I look forward to hearing from you. Within the Board of Directors, we have set-up a sub-committee to coordinate the activities to celebrate the STCC 20th year anniversary. If you have some great ideas to showcase this unique jubilee, lease let us know. I wish you and your business a good start into the business year and much success in the 1st quarter. With my best wishes Bruno G. Odermatt-Maag President *** Contact the President: Bruno G. Odermatt President STCC president@swissthai.com Tel: SERVICE MEMBER DETAIL UPDATES Do you have changes among your delegates or changes to your , mobile, telephone, or fax numbers? Please send all updates to secretary@swissthai.com MEMBERSHIP FEES 2018 The invoices for the year 2018 will be sent out by during May. Kindly make sure that you approve the invoice and forward it for payment to your accounting and make sure that THE PAYMENT SLIP COPY IS SENT TO accounting@swissthai.com Thanks for your support. 3

4 THE PRESIDENT S MESSAGE 4

5 ECONOMY SPECIAL REPORT BY DEUTSCHE BANK ASIA ECONOMICS MONTHLY: BEYOND EXPECTATIONS Economic outlook: Thailand s growth to remain well above its potential, supported by infrastructure investments, which also points to an improvement in its competitiveness. Main risks: Barring an unexpected rise in trade conflicts, risks to growth are tilted to the upside, on both the domestic and external front. Growth well above its potential Thailand to continue to report above-potential growth this year and next... ILike its peers, Thailand benefitted from a rebound in external demand in Stronger G2 growth and a sustained rise in oil prices point to a continued expansion in Thailand s goods exports this year, albeit slightly slower than last year given weaker demand from China. Nevertheless, barring an unexpected surge in trade protectionism, risks to China s growth are tilted to the upside and therefore so are the risks to Thailand s export growth. Sustained growth reported jobless growth for middle income workers, the number of higher income earners has increased, underlying the importance of ensuring adequate supply of educated workforce. Meanwhile, services exports continued to benefit from robust growth in tourism. The number of tourists continued to rise at a robust pace of 8.4% in 2017, vs. 9% in The tourism revenue stood at around 11% of GDP in 2016, vs. 6% in On the domestic front, Thailand s growth will benefit from strong investment growth supported by mega infrastructure projects, which could result in stronger-than-expected crowd-in effects. Thailand s infrastructure investment also points to an improvement in its competitiveness ahead. Meanwhile, the minimum wage hikes pose not only upside risks to private consumption but also inflation. while improved infrastructure should boost Thailand s competitiveness Thailand is likely to enjoy the disbursement of a quarter of a trillion baht worth of infrastructure investment in 2018, in exports points to continued expansion in the manufacturing sector. Although the latter sector three times the amount implemented in The government will also start the bidding for Thai- 5

6 ECONOMY SPECIAL REPORT BY DEUTSCHE BANK land s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) infrastructure projects, worth about THB1.5tn next year. To be certain, the country s relatively poor infrastructure has been a drag on Thailand s competitiveness when compared to its peers. Thailand was ranked 34th (out of 138 economies) in the World Economic Forum Competitiveness Index, below Malaysia (25th) and China (28th) but ahead of Indonesia (39th). According to the report, inadequate supply of infrastructure is one of the top seven challenges when doing business in Thailand (a problem that is not shared by either Malaysia or China). Hence, the importance of the government s infrastructure projects. as inflation trends higher, calling for gradual rate hikes With growth well above its potential, Thailand has already closed its output gap last year. Not surprisingly, a combination of its positive output gap and higher commodity prices point to higher CPI inflation this year, at 1.6% vs. 0.7% in 2017 and higher than the Bank of Thailand s forecast of 1.1%. We have raised our inflation forecast by 0.2ppts due to rising oil prices. Our commodity analysts have recently revised up their average oil price forecasts by 14% to USD- 62bbl (Brent) for this year, vs. USD55/bbl in As far as other risks are concerned, food prices (with the CPI weight of 36%) pose the greatest risks to Thailand s inflation. Like its neighbours, Thailand enjoyed very low food price inflation last year, such that its reversion back to the average would add 1.2ppts to headline inflation. The Bank of Thailand (BoT) kept its policy rate unchanged last month, while suggesting that it is unlikely to change its policy rate any time soon. While we also expect the BoT to keep its policy rate steady for some time, by mid-year it is likely to change its tune, amid above potential growth and rising inflation. We expect the BoT to eventually deliver a 25bps rate hike at end-q3, as the region s monetary policy to shift towards explicit tightening, although to a lesser degree and more slowly 6

7 ECONOMY SPECIAL REPORT BY DEUTSCHE BANK than the Fed. Note that we expect the Fed to hike four times this year, 25bps each quarter. for the timing, we acknowledge that the elections later this year pose risks to our outlook although it is a matter of when not if, in our view. On the other hand, in the unlikely event of large capital outflows, we expect the BoT to also practice considerable restraint in responding with rate hikes, in view of the highly leveraged household sector. This sector s indebtedness stood high at 78% of GDP in Q2 2017, a relatively sharp rise from 52% of GDP reported in Q as its external balance remains supportive. We also agree with the BoT that the risks of capital outflows remain low. When compared to some of its ASEANpeers, we attach relatively low probability to the baht coming under severe pressure, given the large current account surplus and large FX reserves. The latter now stands at more than four times its external financing needs. That is, our 25bps rate hike call in Q3 does not rest on large capital outflows i.e. a weak baht prompting the BoT to hike. Instead, it is an act of normalization of monetary policy rates in the face of the abovementioned potential growth and rising inflation. In fact, our Taylor rule model suggests that a 25bps rate hike this year looks appropriate. As Juliana Lee, Hong Kong,

8 LEGAL BOI SMART VISA, FROM 1 ST FEB ONWARDS VISA-TYPE CATEGORY PURPOSE SMART T I E S O Highly-Skilled Experts (Talents) Investors Senior executives Startup entrepreneurs Spouse and Children of SMART Visa holders The SMART Visa program has been designed to enhance Thailand s attractiveness in drawing science and technology experts, senior executives, investors and startups. The SMART Visa is a new type of visa designed to attract highly skilled manpower and investors to help accelerate the development of the country s targeted industries. SMART Visa is offered to foreign experts, executives, entrepreneurs and investors who wish to enter into the Kingdom of Thailand to work or to invest in the following 10 S-Curve industries or the country s targeted industries. 1. Next-Generation Automotive 2. Smart Electronics 3. Affluent, Medical and Wellness Tourism 4. Agriculture and Biotechnology 5. Food for the Future 6. Automation and Robotics 7. Aviation and Logistics 8. Biofuels and Biochemicals 9. Digital 10. Medical Hub Please note that : this new SmartVisa does not replace the existing Non-Immigrant-B-Visa but is an additional Visa Type. Bearers of this Smart-Visa do NOT NEED a Workpermit, repectively ther permission to work is included in the visa, even for dependents. The requirements to be eligible for the Smart Visa are manifold, details see: Update pdf SmartVisa pdf or directly on the BOI -web page: Thomas Gerber, Exec Director 8

9 LEGAL Q&A ON COLLECTING UNPAID BILLS Contribution by Khun Narit Direkwattanachai, LLM (Cambridge) / Attorney at Law In this guideline, we cover those mostly asked questions about bill collection in Thailand. If you are facing any unpaid bill, this guideline can provide you with the initial, yet essential information when making a sound and timely decision. 1. My customer doesn t pay the bill, do I need to engage an attorney now? At the beginning, the bill collector does not necessarily engage an attorney. You may follow up the bill first by phone, letter or . At some point after you figure out that the customer will not pay the bill unless forced to do so, then you will need to engage an attorney. 2. What is a lawyer s demand notice? Upon taking on the matter, the lawyer will serve the demand letter to the customer requiring the customer to settle the unpaid bill, otherwise the lawyer will have to take the legal action. 3. Is the lawyer s demand notice really effective? Sometimes the lawyer s demand letter alone manages to get the customer to settle the outstanding bill. But that does not happen very often. In most cases, it takes a civil lawsuit or even a criminal charge to get the expected result. 4. If my attorney files a civil complaint to the court, realistically how quickly I can get the money back? That depends on the circumstance. If the customer fights all the way to the Supreme Court, it will take at least three years (if not longer) to get the final judgment, and additional one to two year to enforce the judgment through the Legal Execution Department. Let s talk about the likely scenario in the case where a claim for an unpaid bill is not subject to any credible challenge. The customer may agree to settle the case by paying installments over 9

10 LEGAL the period of one to three years. So if you think you have a solid claim, it probably takes one to three years to get paid in full. 5. How much does the court fee cost in the civil case? Normally, the court fee in the civil case is 2% of the claim amount provided that the maximum court fee shall not exceed Baht 200,000. If the claim amount exceeds Baht 50 Mil, the portion that exceeds Baht 50 Mil is subject to the additional fee of 0.1%. 6. If I win the case entirely, will the court award the court fee? Awarding the court fee is a discretion of the court. But normally if you win entirely and the defense is nonmeritous, the court tends to award the winning side the court fee. 7. If I win the case entirely, will the court award the attorney fee? Likewise, awarding the attorney fee is a discretion of the court. Even if you win the case entirely, the court tends to award the attorney fee in the amount equal to a small fraction of the actual attorney fee. So in other words, you will need to absorb the attorney fee by yourself. 8. Is there any deadline to file a civil complaint to the court? Typically, in commercial case it s either two years or five years. You cannot wait forever to file a civil complaint. 9. My customer happens to issue a check that bounced back, what are my options? In this case you have two options. Option 1 Civil Complaint The first option is to file a civil complaint to the court to force the customer to pay an outstanding bill. If the customer does not really pay, eventually you will need to seize customer s asset to put up for a public action to get a sale proceeds to settle the outstanding bill. With this option, the customer will not have any pressure. Option 2 Criminal Charges You may file a criminal charge on the count of issuing a returned check. In this second option, you may engage an attorney to file a criminal charge directly to the court (quickest route) or you may file a criminal complaint to the police and the police will forward the case to a public prosecutor who will file a criminal charge to the court for you. With the threat of criminal charge, typically the customer tends to find money to pay you to avoid the criminal prosecution. If you go with option 2, you will have to file a complaint to the police or a criminal charge to the court within three months from the date that the check is returned. After three months, the statutory limitation on time for the criminal case will run out and you will only have a civil claim. Should you require more information, please do not hesitate to contact us. Narit Direkwattanachai, LLM (Cambridge) Attorney at Law Mobile: narit@naritlaw.com 10

11 NEW MEMBERS CORPRATE MEMBER: Kaizen (Thailand) Limited Level 8 & 9, Zuellig House, 1 Silom Road Bangkok Thailand Phone: Mobile: th@kaizen.com Web: INDIVIDUAL MEMBER Mr. Miguel Jaun, Swiss, Rembrandt Hotel Bangkok 19, Sukhumvit Road Soi 18 Klongtoey Bangkok, Thailand hm@rembrandtbkk.com Web: Hotel Manager Delegates: Mr. Peter Weiss, Managing Director, and Mr. Apichai Ruangsuriyakit, Senior Consultant KAIZEN Guiding Principles: Good processes bring good results Go see for yourself to grasp the current situation Speak with data, manage by facts Take action to correct root causes of problems Work as a team KAIZEN is everybody s business 11

12 RIS SWISS SECTION DEUTSCHSPRACHIGE SCHULE BANGKOK ALUMNI REUNION ON JANUARY 12TH, 2018 More than 40 Alumni, former teachers, staff and parents of students came together at the RIS Swiss Section Deutschsprachige Schule Bangkok. This Alumni Reunion was a great opportunity to keep in touch with the school and other Alumni. A big group of former students from the Matura class of 1998 even came all the way from Germany to celebrate their 20th Anniversary. Some Alumni prepared presentations and discussed their career backgrounds with the students of Grade 10 to 12 in small groups as a part of the annual career day of the RIS Swiss Section Deutschsprachige Schule Bangkok. The Alumni gave authentic insights into their field of work and daily routine as well as prerequisite studies. Five Students from Grade 9 to 11 guided the Alumni in different groups through the school and many memories rose up when the Alumni saw their childhood classrooms. In the evening, everybody met again at the Restaurant The little Allee for an unforgettable dinner. It was very nice to see that our Alumni still have such a close relationship with their school and even after years still remember their time in Bangkok as very vital. 12

13 RIS SWISS SECTION DEUTSCHSPRACHIGE SCHULE BANGKOK ICESKATING AND BOWLING TRIP 13

14 RIS SWISS SECTION DEUTSCHSPRACHIGE SCHULE BANGKOK Both primary and secondary students of RIS Swiss Section Deutschsprachige Schule Bangkok started the year actively on 17th and 18th January by taking part in our annual iceskating event. Together with their teachers, they once again visited the ice rink at Mega Bang Na Shopping Mall. All students and their teachers enjoyed the unique chance to experience winter here in tropical Thailand. Some secondary students also had the chance to choose bowling instead of iceskating. They also had a lot of fun. We all look forward to our next trip! 14

15 RIS SWISS SECTION DEUTSCHSPRACHIGE SCHULE BANGKOK INVITATION TO THE OPEN HOUSE DAY When: Tuesday, March 6th 2018 What time: 07:30 am 14:30 pm The Open House Day is the ideal opportunity for parents and interested families to learn about the characteristics that make our school distinctive. School tours will be offered to anyone interested. Our team will provide you with the essential information. All lessons will take place according to our normal schedule. You are cordially invited to visit them. The class schedules will be displayed at the front entrance on the Open House day. We welcome you to meet and greet our excellent group of teachers and staff. Important events in the second semester of the school year : Open House Day (07:30-14:40) Flea Market for Primary School (11:00-12:00) Graduation Ceremony (10:00) Matura Ball Please visit our website and get more information about our upcoming events. 15

16 16