Business Environment: Thailand.. Speech for Nanyang MBA
Business Environment
: Thailand
Nanyang MBA,Nanyang Technological University
At Dusit Thani, Bangkok.
6 June 2011
By.. Prof. Dr. Chira Hongladarom
Secretary – General
Foundation for International Human Resource Development
- Great honor to be here.
- Singapore and Thailand have long term co-operation. To welcome all of you here and show your desire to experience real situation in Thailand. Normally, another way around, Thai go to visit and learn from Singapore.
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I hope this experiences will be useful for you and for Thais.
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My objectives are simple, we want to learn and share together. My remark will only stimulate you to share and discuss which I hope we can learn from one another. I will speak for 45 minutes, the rest is for Q&A.
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To understand business environment in Thailand, I have divided my speech into 4 aspects;
First - basic facts
Second – weakness
Third – strength
Fourth – future direction
6. Basic facts
6.1) Geography (Map) Location of Thailand is quite unique – half way between two great Asian power, China and India.
6.2)Close to Greater Mekong Sub – region the concept of GMS is important.
6.3)Land areas are quite large 513,120 km2 (50th) 198,115 sq mi
Try to understandthe regional aspectof Thailand (North,North East South)
6.4)65.4 Million people but becoming aging society – because of birth rate declining (like Singapore). Needs import labor from other countries.
Population – homogeneous more than 90% Buddhists.
7. Strength of Thailand
7.1)Economy is open like Singapore. Export is about 70% of GDP.
7.2) Economy is quite balanced;
- Agriculture
- Industry
- Services
but industry is declining,service sector expanding, healthcare, tourism and trading are growing.
7.3) Thais never been colonized by western power. We treat foreigners with equals.
7.4) Thailand rich in history and culture (please learn about our history and culture).
7.5) Thai people relative happy and peaceful, and friendly.
7.6) Chinese influence in commercial class is significant.
Entrepreneurship is strong among Thai-Chinese but weak among Native - Thais.
7.7) Basic infrastructure is relatively good.
8. Weakness of Thailand
8.1) Corruption – fairly wide spread.
8.2)Political uncertainty – too much imported democracy.
8.3) English language ability is weak.
8.4) Lack of self-control and discipline.
8.5) Human Resources or Human Capital weak – both at macro and micro level.
8.6) Logistics cost which 19% of total business cost – average is 10 – 12%.
8.7) Major problems in income distribution – Rural people have much less income.
8.8) Political Parties want to win election, economic policy is towards give and give. Not enough long-term planning.
R&D is weak.
8.9) Economy depends too much on import technology - not enough transfer technology.
8.10)Thai do not have enough creativity and innovations. Can improve.
8.11)Thai CEO concentrate too much on maximize short – term gain – not enough investment in HR.
8.12)SMEs cannot compete with multi – national companies.
8.13) Foreign business dominates too much.
9. Future Direction of Thailand
1.Life long learning development and knowledge base economy
2.Aging population society management
ความเห็น (1)
I spoke to audience from Singapore several times;
- the key question is "How to have happiness capital or individual happiness at work.
- My advice is self - evaluation about yourself, what do you want in life?
- Thai - Singapore co-operation in happiness capital is challenging.