Thai-

American
Business
Journal of The American Chamber Of Commerce In Thailand Volume 1/2017

Thailand 4.0: Investment-led Transformation

10 Interview with Dr. Suvit Maesincee, Architect of Thailand 4.0
14 Thailand 4.0: Systems Upgrade
16 The Human Factor in Thailand 4.0
20 Thailand 4.0: Powered by Renewable Energy?
 The Future of Competition
is Collaboration

Thailand 4.0, spoke at AMCHAMs membership luncheon on January 26 and presented the main tenets
of the Royal Thai Governments new strategy to raise Thailand from a volume-based to a value-based
economy. Recently, he sat down with AMCHAMs Communications Director, Deanna Despodova
Pajkovski, to answer some follow-up questions and go more indepth into the intricacies of Thailand

Q: When you addressed the

American business community
at AMCHAMs monthly luncheon
in January you talked about
pracharat or State of the People
as a unifying element of Thailand
4.0. Can you explain the concept of
pracharat as it pertains to Thailand
4.0 and how it would contribute to
the implementation of the Royal
Thai Governments strategy?

A: The pracharat concept works under

is that in the last decade we have seen mar-

-
kets and when the markets fail we try to rely
-

the division of labor between market and

- - contribute to Thai society. We are also in

ernment and the private sector to deal with mittees or working groups as part of the talks with the Thai European Business As-
pracharat concept to work on a variety of sociation and I dont see why we cant also
talked about competition and the concept - have a Thai-American pracharat.
of cooperation had a negative connota-
infrastructure to grass-roots develop- Q: Thailand 4.0 is a comprehensive
- - strategy that covers all aspects of
development. In your presentation
competitiveness of our labor force. These at AMCHAMs luncheon you
in the context of national development it focused on the economic aspect,
means that we have social as well as eco- there is no reason why they couldnt work or the development of a value-
nomic collaboration among these agents based economy. What are the other
that doesnt only involve the public and we have been approached by JETRO (Ja- development aspects contained in
pan External Trade Organization) and Thailand 4.0?
they are interested in establishing pra-
to solve local issues and concerns. This kind charat between Thailand and Japan be- A: In my presentation I talked about the
of new emerging collaborations as public- cause there are a lot of Japanese investors
private partnerships and social enterprises in Thailand and they perceive Thailand as have the inclusive growth engine. We have
is in line with what we call pracharat in Thai. developed a new regional policy which di-

10 Thai-American Business Volume 1/2017

vides Thailand into six regions and further
into 18 clusters of provinces. We have al-
located Baht 100 billion to be invested
into these clusters of provinces as part
of the inclusive growth engine in order to
escape the inequality trap. Another aspect
we are working on is the environmental

human wisdom. The underlying concept

Globalization
-

line with the Sustainable Development

The Thailand 4.0 strategy focuses on

Industrialization

trying to achieve economic democrati-

foreign academic institutions need to on our feet and increase our universi-
have a majority Thai ownership. I now ties competitiveness while still being
supervise the Board of Investment (BoI) part of the global collaborative network.
and I have talked to the Minister of Edu-
world. Each of these areas have been as- cation and we completely agree that we bring the best people from the best
signed a Ministry that is accountable for need to abolish this regulation. We need global research institutions and univer-
the implementation. The cabinets are al- sities to work hand-in-hand with their
ready driving the ministerial agenda. Just - Thai counterparts to make progress in
-
ernment 4.0. The bureaucratic system - I believe this is the right model for Thai-
can be the enabler or the constraint to straints to bring in the best and brightest. land. We are a small and open economy
The return on investment in people is and we should have a strong network
of the policy of Prime Minister Prayuth very high. So we are trying to bring in in-
Chan-o-cha is raising the quality of the vestment not only in the business sector
but also in academic institutions. and knowledge.

ecosystem. Reform starts with reforming

things: administrative reform and regulato-

on relaxing regulatory constraints on busi-

ness and improving the ease of doing busi-
ness by eradicating outdated regulations.

Q: You mentioned several times

that people are an essential
element in implementing Thailand
4.0. What is the Royal Thai
Governments plan on elevating
the capacity of the current and
future Thai workforce to make
Thailand 4.0 a reality?

A: What we are trying to do is relax the

The American Chamber Of Commerce In Thailand

11
 Regarding primary and secondary edu-

focus on is this structural problem and

5 Agendas of Thailand 4.0
close the gap in educational opportunity.

Q: Are there any plans to reform

and invest more in vocational level
education?

A: When it comes to vocational educa-

education which is still perceived as infe-

rior to a university degree even though
the demand for semi-skilled labor is very

people trained through the vocational in-

stitutions are guaranteed a job. We have
to create an enabling environment to
make this option attractive to people. win-win. So organizations like JETRO and have asked the Ministry of Labor to del-
JICA are needed to provide meaningful egate the issuance of the work permit to
Another issue we have to work on is how assistance. Also worth noting is that this -
to retrain semi-skilled labor to respond to cooperation is not transactional; it is re- bassy can issue the visa and work permit
the ongoing trend of automation in or- lational.
months all reporting to the Immigration
down the road.
that the future of global economic person.
Q: What can the American business exchange is not in the sphere of
community in Thailand do to heavy industry, but technology Another reform we are considering in the
support the implementation of and knowledge transfer. Is the direction of increasing the ease of doing
Thailand 4.0? Government planning any changes business is to make it possible for only
to the investment promotion one person to establish a company with-
A: When I think about Thai-U.S. coopera- requirements to attract tech out the need for nominees in order to at-
startups and R&D- focused SMEs?
knowledge transfer. Thailand 4.0 is in line looking into changing the regulations for
with what American companies are al-
ready doing so we need to look into how BOI will be re-directed from volume-
we can make this linkage stronger. - locally. It is possible to have transparency
and quality at the same time.
Most American companies are multina- -
tional and America as a whole is focused ing talent. One of the constraints of the We are also upgrading the BOI promotion
-
is more regional-centric. They approach certain targeted sectors the tax breaks
that is not enough. In order to attract have been extended from eight to 13
years. We have also established a Com-
from Indonesia. I think America should petitiveness Fund worth Baht 10 billion
the personal income tax as well. Another to attract and support high-value compa-
nies that wish to invest in Thailand. Then
- the possibility to get a work visa and work
sive research before entering a market or permit at the same time. It is currently the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).
quite burdensome for foreign talent to
obtain the necessary documentation to A lot of the reforms we are trying to im-
to JETRO I always have a feeling they have work in Thailand as the work visa is issued plement are based on common sense
with an additional consideration of how
what the government needs and they work permit is issued by the Ministry of
Labor. This doesnt make any sense. I neighboring countries.

12 Thai-American Business Volume 1/2017