Letters from Bangkok: Business is Still Hot

Greetings from Bangkok, I am back here in this very busy city to do a bit of personal stuff and look at the way Thais do business as well.

I have to say from what I have seen so far, the global economic slowdown has yet to dampen the Thai's natural entrepreneurial spirit. Having said that there is political debate over a very large so-called "stimulus" package - you would have thought the Thais would have learnt from the failure of every country's respective bailouts that have thus far pumped trillions of borrowed money into failing economies.

Everything is constantly pumping and everywhere one looks, even in areas of abject poverty, people are selling things; whether it be rice, tyres, cars, rags or tummy tucks.

Bangkok really is a paradise for a healthy capitalist like myself!

The Thai Stock Exchange Index closed at 644.2 this last Friday, according to the Bangkok Post , up more than 50% over the last 6 months alone, and one could expect, like other world indexes, including our own NZX, this kind of market over-exuberance is not a sustainable one given the fragile nature of any perceived global economic recovery.

I am going to visit the heart of bureaucracy tomorrow, Embassy row (the Kiwi Embassy and red tape machine on the 15th floor of a very flash downtown building) in downtown Bangkok and plan on taking a look at the operation of their stockmarket as well.


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Thai Express

Well, I wish the Thailand economy was as hot as the weather. I'm here in Bangkok on a business trip of sorts and while here naturally I would be checking out the action on the stockmarket and goings on economy wise.

There are rumblings of a coup here at the moment, where the "PAD" a people's democracy movement are trying to overthrow the nation's leader. This is naturally having an affect on the local stockmarket and their stock index has waivered in the last couple of days.

Looking around the country though any natural born capitalist, or one who has joined the movement recently, would be excited at the industrial nature of commerce and industry. The economy is of course highly controlled by a benevolent dictatorship(my own estimation) but that doesn't stop the nations people from trying to reach their obvious economic dream of having all the western accoutrement's.

If our tour guide is accurate in her figures, one of the main reasons for the locals and their fastidious work rate is the personal tax system. A range from 3% to a maximum of 30% is a definite incentive to get the country moving in a forward economic direction.

Our corrupt socialist Labour Party New Zealand leaders should take note. Our high tax rate is of course strangling our economy to death. Take my word, the Thai people are very poor as a whole today and the economy is struggling but give them 10 years or so and they will be richer than New Zealand. Far richer.

The constraints of red tape and planning procedures also don't hamper the forwards progress of the Thai economy. Factories belch lovely coloured smoke and their water is undrinkable. The 19th century industrial process is a little late in coming here. You have to let them have it though. It would be greedy and hypocritical of the Western World to hamper them with the Global Warming madness and other business constraints. Time and money will take care of the environment.

Leaving the hotel after this I will be confronted with a million people trying to take a Baht or 2 off me to help feed their families. It is in your face, exciting and entrepreneurial to the extreme. All that New Zealand business seems to lack at present, and has done for a long time.

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c Share Investor 2008