I would like to know, if the amendment of
immigration and work permit law becomes effective as
proposed, what are the consequences? The idea of this
amendment is interesting and good, but is there any reality
behind this.
I think if the government would put more
effort into educating young people, the new proposal would be
accomplished in 20 years. At the moment Thailand can not
afford to make this proposal considering the economy. If this
proposal becomes effective, it will not create more
workspaces for Thais: on the contrary it will reduce
opportunities. There is no fault in the Thai employees, they
are relatively diligent and willing to learn, but you must
remember that the great amount of free labor doesn’t
have basic education. For example, ten years ago, the right
angle and the level were unknown working tools for employees
who came from rural areas of Thailand. And now they supposed
to become supervisors, who take responsibility for work
quality, etc. I think they are not capable of that. I am sure
that there are not many unemployed Thai engineers, for
example, who want to move, to Maptaput and work in 35-45
degree heat, teaching compatriots when before they sat in
air-con offices in Bangkok and enjoyed high salaries. The
only problem is not this, however. The engineers I mentioned
above are often twice as young as the people they teach, and
this automatically causes its own problems. It is strange,
but we farangs are more respected and our work quality is
more recognized by Thai employees regardless of our ages.
It should be remembered that depressions in
Asian countries have not been caused only by governments, but
as well by the opportunity taken by some profiteers to swing
economies. Regarding my sources, these profiteers are Mr.
Julian Roberts, Mr. George Soros, and Mr. Franklin Templeton.
They and their companies risk-money, which has been estimated
to be worth of 1,620 billions USD, and have swung economies
in Asia countries. We can not forget what happened in Finland
and Sweden in the early 90’s. The situation was bad at
that time and maybe worse than in Thailand at the present.
After they (profiteers) operated in Finland and Sweden, the
economies there were in ruin. For example, in Finland there
were 600,000 unemployed in a 5.1 million citizens country,
32,000 companies became bankrupt, and the government’s
debts raise up to 85 billion USD. There was chaos left after
these businessmen’s operations, which took five years to
clear up. There is no "patent-remedy" for
situations like that. But in the year 2000 such speculation
will be difficult because there will be only one common
currency in Europe, ECU. This common currency will create so
big volume for the market that profiteers will not be able to
swing economies. I hope Asian countries can create the same
kind of union what will prevent speculation.
I understand that the Labor Department is
concerned how these 2 million unemployed people will be able
to get a job. But they should now put ice cubes in their hats
instead of making any quick decisions which might make
matters worse than before. As a matter of fact, 2 million
unemployed workers is only about 3% of Thai citizens.
In Finland and Sweden they recovered by
opening doors instead of closing them. There, government also
supports sole entrepreneurs in many different ways. For
example, I can mention a couple of them: 1. There was start
money for new entrepreneurs who established a new company.
The start money was about 1000 USD which they received from
the government. 2. There were also tax exemptions and small
interest loans granted by the government, offices and cheap
land for rent and information and free education for new
entrepreneurs. These resolutions started the wheels rolling
slowly and since they have been rolling for some time, the
debts are paid back and bad memories have gone away.
Regarding the new amendments to immigration
and work permit laws, I would mention the following. There
are 3 different categories of "tourists" in
Thailand at the present:
Category 1: Those tourists who travel to
Thailand for one week up to three months. They live like
millionaires here and spend their money and savings during
their holiday - good for the Thai economy.
Category 2: The pensioners, who enjoy their
"pension-days" in Thailand. They have a regular
income, often relatively small, which their home country
sends through their banks. These pensioners can’t afford
to travel to their home countries every three months to renew
their visas. So they would search for a new home base
somewhere else. In this category belongs thousands of people
whose income Thailand is going to lose.
Category 3: Tourists who are not tourists.
They have a small hotel, restaurant or some other enterprise
in their wives’, girlfriends’, lawyers’ or
friends’ name. They give work directly to 5 to 20
persons, also giving work to sub-constructors. Rarely do
these entrepreneurs own their premises. The owner is usually
a Thai, who gets the rent and the farang pays electricity,
water and phone bills. These farang entrepreneurs also give
services to category 1 tourists. These farang entrepreneurs
don’t do and cannot do work, but sit in their premises
and are some kind of "advertise-pillars", small
talking their fellow foreigners. If they have to travel
consecutively to their home countries to renew their visas,
they would also find a new home, because their
enterprises’ net profit is not enough to travel often
and also their businesses will suffer from this. If this
group is leaving the country, where can you find an
unemployed Thai restaurant keeper who can replace them? One
who can speak with tourists in their mother language about
politics, sports, etc. Real-estate owners will lose their
rents, employees their jobs, goods-food-beverage suppliers
lose their customers, and so on. At the same time in
categories 1 and 2 services will decrease. There will be less
competition which will raise prices and finally 1 and 2
categories’ tourists will disappear. For Thailand’s
economy, it will be a great loss, because everybody in these
three categories gives jobs and income to Thai people.
I’ll cite one example, which applies
to me and my company. It was established in 1988 and since
has worked in engineering and construction areas. We have
planned and constructed, among others, factories,
storehouses, offices, and condos. We have 25 to 150 Thai
employees depending on the project. Sub-constructing comes
wholly from Thai companies, but, and the big but, is that our
quality observing, planning and supervision is made and will
be made by farang employees or otherwise we can throw our
slogan "Thai prices-European quality" into the
trash bin.
We take care of our employees, we help them
with their home problems and provide them with apartments and
that is why the turnover is low. However, we have tried to
use Thais in supervision jobs instead of farangs many times,
but most of them have not worked out at all. There have
disappeared materials, tools in the evening and at the night
they moonlight. The consequence is that the next day they are
so tired that work does not go well but it does not concern
supervisor at all. They can rest during the paid day and
moonlight in the evening using our company’s materials
and tools.
The Labor Department now wants farangs
working here in construction, supervision and engineering
areas to quit their jobs. Personally, I don’t think that
the Labor Department is so naïve they believe they can
replace these farangs with Thai employees.
If this new amendment becomes effective, we
must close our doors because without present practice we can
forget our slogan, Thai prices European quality. I believe we
are not the only ones who think the same and after this there
will be more unemployed persons. Finally, I would suggest
that instead of making it difficult for farangs to get work
permits you should, on the contrary, ease your regulations
for farangs who already work in Thailand. That way you can
create more work places for Thais.
Yours sincerely
Pekka Laine
Nordic-Thai Ventures,
Co. Ltd.
Editor;
As a former Bangkok resident and frequent
visitor to Pattaya, now transplanted to Hong Kong, I enjoy
reading Pattaya Mail on the Internet. Seeing the
recent article on the Asian Games I would like to add that
Squash in the Asian Games is also being held in Pattaya, at
the Ambassador City, Jomtien.
The powers that be are keeping this quiet
as there is not a chance in hell of Thailand winning anything
or even getting past the first round of the tournament.
Squash was the only event in the Chiang Mai SEA Games (1995)
where Thailand won nothing - that squash competition was also
held in the Ambassador City venue.
That aside, expect to see excellent squash with the
region’s best players including Pakistan, Hong Kong,
Malaysia, and Singapore, all fighting for honours.
For more details contact Mike Greenwood at
the Asian Games HQ in Bangkok.
Regards,
Phil Hall
Hong Kong
Editor’s note: Our announcement of
the Ambassador City Jomtien Hotel hosting the squash
competitions of the Asian Games appeared in Pattaya Mail Vol.
VI No. 13, March 27th on back page under the headline,
"Ambassador to host Asian squash", complete with a
picture of the OCA Sports Committee Chairman and sports
executives of the Ambassador Hotel. Perhaps Mr. Hall missed
that issue on the Internet.
