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2006 Reviewed, and 2007 OutlookHappy New Year to everyone from Thailand Guru! The year 2006 was an eventful one in Thailand as regards Thais and foreigners' best interests alike! The Thai economy has proven itself with strong growth and stability regardless of various major events and turmoil (which has always been the case over decades of coups and democratically elected governments, with the 1997 economic crash as the only exception). The economy is simply too diverse and big, and Thai politics and society are relatively homogenous in outlook and methodology. Nonetheless, there are a few events which are most notable: The military coup of September 19 and its aftermath are the main event. In my opinion (and that of most analysts), this is actually beneficial to Thailand's economy, society, and political reform in the long run, as discussed in my page on the Thailand military coup of 2006. Three other events are also notable in this brief review: There were two loopholes closed whereby foreigners previously could buy land in Thailand and engage in various business using nominees. In May 2006, regulations were enforced whereby Thai wives of foreigners who are buying land must show where the money came from historically (not just show their bank book with recent deposits) and that it cannot come from the foreigner, and companies with a foreign shareholder must do likewise (not be just a shell company so that the foreign shareholder(s) can buy and control land). In August 2006, regulations were enforced whereby Thai companies with a foreigner shareholder must show where their registered investment capital is coming from, regardless of whether or not property was part of their business. Nominees and proxies can no longer register capital by a loan from a foreigner but must have earned their money and assets over time. This dramatically cut registrations of shell companies formed for all purposes, including foreigners who were just trying to get a work permit and visa extension by setting up their own shell company. This does not affect condominiums. As before, foreigners can buy and own a condominium. Nothing has changed about that. The new regulations had a few intentions. One is to stop the purchase of much of Thailand's best land by rich foreigners, which drove up land prices beyond the reach of most Thais. Also, many foreign criminal syndicates were getting established in Thailand this way, which had to be stopped. Further, there were a lot of problems with companies being set up for various purposes using nominee shareholders, many of whom were just poor people paid a little bit to sign a few sheets of paper. In October 2006, the long awaited new visa regulations were announced which were intended to make things more difficult for undesirable foreigners who have been just hanging out in Thailand for years, in view of a lot of crooks who were just doing the 30 day border run by the 1-day round trip buses to Cambodia and Myanmar (mostly). This is covered in the section on visas to Thailand. Newly arriving foreigners will generally not have a problem, but if you plan to be in Thailand a long time, then be sure to get a visa in your home country or from another country outside of Asia before you come to Thailand. Don't just arrive without a visa and get a visa-on-arrival, and then expect to be able to exit and enter every 30 days for as many times as you wish. You get only 3 x visa-on-arrival. Those are the main news items of 2006 which I see as most significant to a broad range of foreigners. What about Thailand Guru & company -- what happened with us in 2006, and what's our own outlook for 2007? The author of Thailand had already been thru 12 New Years Days in Thailand (since first coming here work-related in 1994, and deciding to stay after a few months). However, I must say that 2006 was quite an eventful year for me and my company, with good progress in building up our business, some challenging experiences, and important lessons learned. In August, we opened a new branch office (actually, a shop in a new shopping mall) in the central business district on Sukhumvit 21 (Asoke), which our customers have much appreciated (as well as some of our employees who live in central Bangkok). Right now, this office deals mostly with foreigners coming in to find a place to live -- apartment, condominium, or house -- and is staffed mainly with our real estate agents from that area, and equipped with our collection of guide books about schools and some other things. However, our intention is for this to be a general purpose customer interface outlet, as you will see from our window advertising. Our suburban Nonthaburi office is still our main office, but it seems to have been taken over largely by our translators on the ground floor, which is fine because that's where the customers walk in and where the best English is needed. We still do research and general services by staff on the upper level of this office. Some of the suburban real estate staff have also been kept at this office.
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