Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Foreign Business Act in Thailand. For those who are unaware, yes in fact foreigners are heavily restricted from the type of business they can do in Thailand pursuant to the restrictions of the FBA. And understand, yeah Thailand has some protectionist measures to insulate their own economy. In my opinion, now I may have the fervour of the converted as a Thai but honestly if you look at that historical context of all of this, at the end of the day it really does make a lot of sense, at least to me. 

I thought of making this video after reading in the Bangkok Post print edition but from this article: 'Gray' businesses facing crackdown from Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, quoting directly: "Thailand's Foreign Business Act currently limits foreign shareholdings to 49% of a business, and includes three lists of work for which foreign participation may be prohibited or restricted." So let's start from there. 

Basically, if you are looking to set up in Thailand and you are a foreign national looking to do business here, basically your default position is going to be at 49% of a given corporate structure, 49% ownership. So that is what you are going to be looking at with respect to that. Now quoting directly from the article: "Further, activities in list 2 are designated as "Businesses related to national safety or security, or affecting arts and culture, traditional and folk handicraft, or natural resources and environment." Foreign companies may only engage in these activities with Cabinet approval."

So, understand and we have gone into great detail in prior videos frankly years ago, this is kind of a redundant video in certain ways, but I discussed in another video regarding list 1 and kind of mentioned National Security. They bring up National Security again; this more sort of indirectly pertains to National Security. In any event, at the end of the day it requires Cabinet approval. Now that is a tall order under any circumstances. So as a practical matter, it may be very, very difficult to do business or to conduct business activity which is considered under list 2 of the Foreign Business Act in the Kingdom of Thailand.