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BOI Targeted Industries and the Smart Visa Program
Transcript of the above video:
As the title to this video suggests we are going to be talking about the Smart Visa again specifically within the context of the BOI and the sort of targeted areas associated with the industrial sectors that are being targeted for both Smart Visa issuance as well as being targeted for being brought into Thailand. There's certain kinds of industries they are trying to sort of, for lack of a better term, entice to come into the Kingdom and operate.
A couple of things: I am quoting directly from a flyer from BOI which discusses the Smart Visa directly. So when asked, what is the Smart Visa, I'll just quote directly from this handout. "The smart visa is a new type of visa designed to attract highly-skilled manpower and investors to help accelerate the development of the country's targeted Industries. The Smart Visa is offered to foreign experts, executives, entrepreneurs and investors who wish to enter the kingdom of Thailand to work or to invest in the following "10 S- Curve" Industries or the countries targeted industries". So the first thing to keep in mind with respect to this is, those entrepreneurs, executives etc., we have done a number of videos on this channel which go in and target those specific visa categories and provide some information about those specifically, so check that out depending on what category you fit under. With respect to this "10 S- Curve" industry issue, what are these targeted industries? Well they are “Next Generation Automotive, Smart Electronics, Affluent Medical and Wellness Tourism, Agriculture and Biotechnology, Food for the Future, Automation and Robotics, Aviation and Logistics, Biofuels and Biochemicals, Digital and Medical Hub”. So those are the 10 they are looking to bring in. They are looking to encourage this type of business activity. As previously discussed in discussing the Smart Visa categories, the company that’s sponsoring the Smart Visa holder has to be certified as being in one of these specific Industries before the individual involved who is seeking the Smart Visa can go ahead and get that Smart Visa. That individual also has to be certified, so there is an adjudication process associated with the visa itself. So the one thing to take away from this video and something I don't think I've made quite clear enough based on the questions I've had since we made the prior videos, is that there needs to be an underlying company. These Smart Visas aren't just issued to the individual; they are issued as sort of a benefit of certification of an underlying company. So if an individual wishes to get one of these visas, they either need to be affiliated with the company that is doing this type of thing in Thailand or wishes to do this type of thing in Thailand. Moreover, those who wish to come here and sort of do it themselves, and entrepreneurs are very, very encouraged under this program as can be seen by the fact that startups and entrepreneurs are granted their own visa categories, they still need to set up a structure here in the Kingdom, it is not a matter of just getting the Visa. The Visa is sort of concomitant with having an overall operation here in the Kingdom and that operation has to fit within the framework of one of these 10 sort of sought after industries, sought after sectors that they are looking to encourage here in the Kingdom. So the thing to take away from this video is first of all, it is not just a stand-alone visa, it is associated with an underlying concern. Furthermore, the underlying concern, the underlying business, needs to fit within one of these categories and the fact that it fits in one of these categories has to be certified by various agencies involved with the overall process as well as probably BOI in order for the company to even be eligible to apply for smart visas for individuals associated with the company. Then the individual can go ahead and apply and then their qualifications and their credentials are going to be scrutinized and once that scrutiny is done, with an adjudication is made as to whether or not they are qualified and then at that point it will be possible to go ahead and apply for and receive, presumably, possibly, a 4-year Smart Visa pursuant to these new regulations. Again we are playing this a little bit more by ear than I usually like to because this is a fairly new framework, this is not something we have seen in the past. It only came about this month February, 2018. We have discussed it at length for about 6 months. It's finally coming to fruition but the framework itself is somewhat misunderstood by folks that I have gotten questions from since I made the last video so hopefully this will provide a little more clarity.