Welcoming Remarks

by

H.E. Suwit Khunkitti
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry
Royal Thai Government

Joint Foreign Chamber of Commerce
Consultative Meeting

Grand Hyatt Erawan
4 July 2008

Chairman Nandor van der Luehe, Distinguished Representatives of the Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is truly a pleasure to have the opportunity to welcome you for the second in a series of consultative meetings between the Board of Investment and the Joint Foreign Chambers Consultative Committee.

When we last met, I promised you that this government was committed to engaging the foreign business community as part of our efforts to restore investor confidence.

We recognize that those of you in the room are among Thailand’s best salesmen, for you can tell your compatriots about the ease of doing business in Thailand, how our efforts to enhance competitiveness are paying off and that the government is serious about facilitating foreign investment. In other words, “Why Thailand.”

Therefore, I encouraged the Joint Chambers, as well as individual chambers, to submit recommendations about how we could make the investment environment in Thailand more attractive.

I would like to thank the chambers for their input, for it gives us an idea of the issues that are of the greatest concern to the foreign business community. I am particularly pleased about the tone of the suggestions from the chambers. Rather than simply point out what they felt was wrong, the papers provided possible remedies for us to explore.

So, with that as the backdrop, let me turn to update you about what we have been doing to address the concerns voiced at the last meeting and in your papers.

Ladies and gentlemen:

As I mentioned the last time we met as a group, the Thai government is committed to revising rules and regulations that may hinder investment, and amending investment laws to facilitate private business operations.

Almost immediately after taking office, we lifted the capital controls, which were perceived by foreign investors as an impediment to investment, even though foreign direct investments through the Board of Investment were exempt from the regulation.

We have also been working to address the specific concerns raised at the first consultative meeting. I truly believe that we can address/resolve many of the issues that were raised at that meeting, and we have begun to do so.

First of all, I set up a task force to look into the concerns raised by the Joint Foreign Chambers. We reached out to the responsible agencies to make them aware of the need to make the investment climate more attractive, and I have been gratified by the response.

For example, several chambers asked if we could clarify the status of the Foreign Business Act. I am sure you will be pleased to hear that the current government will not pursue the amendments to the Foreign Business Act that were proposed by the interim government. We firmly believe that any revisions to the Foreign Business Act need to take investors’ concerns into account. Accordingly, any changes to the FBA will be to make the investment environment more, not less, attractive.

Another issue raised by investors was the need to set up a one-stop service center for all foreign investors, and I am pleased to report that a “help desk” has been set up at the BOI since 20 March 2008.

The chambers asked about speeding up the processing of applications for investment promotion incentives from the Board of Investment, and within weeks of our consultative meeting, we reduced the time frame for handling applications from 40 days to 15 business days for applications of less than 40 million baht.

In addition, we sat down with the immigration and airport officials to see what could be done to expedite the arrival of investors through our airports. I am pleased to report that executive staff, skilled laborers and specialists from BOI-approved companies are now permitted to utilize the “Diplomatic & Official/APEC/BOI lanes” at immigration.

We also have expanded the scope of the One-Stop Service Center for Visas and Work Permits to include executives from all foreign chambers, which I know will come as a relief to the executive directors of the chambers.

Furthermore, the BOI is in the process of revising the 140 activities eligible for promotion, as well as the investment promotion conditions, to better suit the current market and competitive environment, and we expect to complete the review by the end of July.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I think you can see from our response to the issues raised at the previous meeting that we are serious about improving the investment climate. We realize that there are more issues out there that need to be addressed, and you have my assurance that the task force will continue to look at the concerns you raised to see what we can do to make the investment environment more user-friendly.

In closing, let me reassure you that my door is always open to the foreign chambers. With your continued support, I am confident that we can, together, achieve the objectives of Thailand Investment Year 2008-2009.

Thank you for your kind attention. I look forward to your comments about what we are doing to improve the investment environment in Thailand.