Government to boost benefits for companies locating regional operating headquarters in Thailand

Dep Minister of Finance Pradit Phataraprasit to lead an Open Forum on Wed 10th Feb to solicit direct input from private sector on how government can help them operate more competitively in the region


Deputy Minister of Finance Pradit Phataraprasit, today, (Wednesday 3 February) announced that the government is formulating plans to boost tax and non-tax benefits to companies that locate their regional operating headquarters in Thailand.

“We aim to reinforce Thailand’s position in the region as an important manufacturing and services hub,” said Deputy Finance Minister Pradit who chairs a committee charged with developing a set of recommendations that can make Thailand a more attractive location for the regional operating headquarters of companies.

He said, “The establishment of a regional headquarters in Thailand by giant foreign companies can generate enormous benefits for our country and accelerate economic growth. It results in the location in Thailand of many high-salaried expatriate managers; it means more demand for housing, more shopping and other spending, and more business for hotels and restaurants with a greater number of international events being organized in Thailand. It also means that Thai staff have more opportunity to become regional managers with much higher salaries and responsibilities.”

Mr. Pradit said that he is organizing an Open Forum meeting on Wednesday 10th February at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center for the private sector to give direct input to him on how they believe Thailand could become more attractive as a regional operating headquarters for their companies.

“I want this to be a collaborative effort that gets the best ideas on the table, and to weed out what isn’t important to the private sector,” said Mr. Pradit.

He said that, “multiple government agencies are working together and all key people responsible for developing and submitting these recommendations for Cabinet approval will be present at the session to listen to the views of the private sector, including the Board of Investment, the Bank of Thailand, the Revenue Department, the Fiscal Policy Office, as well as the Federation of Thai Industries, and the Thai Chamber of Commerce, in addition to himself and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance.”
HOW TO REGISTER TO ATTEND

Attendance is free. To book a place, please email or fax representatives’ Name, Title, and Company to ROHforum@gmail.com , or fax: 02-664 9515, Attention: Khun Pairoj. Reservations should be made no later than Monday 8th February. Seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis. Presentations will be in English and Thai.

Parliament's Communications & Telecommunication Committee to settle call problems between Hutch and TrueMove customers

Almost two months after many Hutch customers lodged a complaint for not being able to make a call to TrueMove numbers, no conclusion has yet been reached despite the negotiations on IC. This problem caused more troubles to many consumers as they are not able to get access in their communication activities.


Many Hutch customers used Pantip websites have submitted complaint letters to the Communications & Telecommunication Committee of the Parliament to resolve the problem since those submitted to the Telecommunication Consumer Protection Institute under National Telecommunication Committee (NTC) showed no sign of progress.

Mr. Romran Thong-in, a member of the sub-committee, has called representatives from CAT, Hutch and TrueMove to clarify the problem two weeks ago. According to representatives from CAT, negotiations have failed after it has been alerted since the problem started. The Sub-committee assigned CAT, the owner of CDMA network and the one authorized to negotiate with TrueMove again, to come back to give a progress report to the committee within 15 days.

The committee has accepted this problem as special case because it caused damages to social relationships and business of consumers. Service providers have not yet reached a final conclusion on IC rate because the 1 baht per 1 minute rate proposed by giant operators was too high while call promotional offers in the market is about 0.50 baht. This follows the study of TDRI researcher which stated that such rate was not correct and fair.

However, while negotiation on IC is ongoing, customers of Hutch and TrueMove should not be effected.