Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing list 3 of Thailand's Foreign Business Act. Now we have done two other videos discussing list 1 and 2. I did videos years ago getting into the details, kind of digging in, getting my hands dirty with to the provisions of the Foreign Business Act. 

Long story short, list 1 and 2 are highly restrictive. As a practical matter it is very difficult to, well in list 1 it is just impossible basically to get any kind of exemption from list 1. List 2, very, very difficult, you are looking at Cabinet approval but let me quote directly from this article again, this is from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, I found it in the print edition the article is titled: 'Grey' businesses facing crackdown. There is a lot of information in there. I urge those who are watching this video, go read that article in detail. The thrust of it is not about these lists per se, it actually has more insight in there. Quoting directly: "Thailand's Foreign Business Act currently limits foreign shareholding to 49% of a business and includes three lists of work from which foreign participation may be prohibited or restricted."

So again we start from this default position of a foreign national or foreign companies only going to be able to own 49% of an incorporated entity doing business here in Thailand. Quoting further: "Activities in list 3 are designated as "Businesses in which Thai nationals are not yet ready to compete with foreigners." Foreign companies must apply for and obtain a foreign business license before taking part in these activities." 

As a practical matter, a foreign business license is rather difficult to obtain it's been my experience. It's highly discretionary on the part of the adjudicating officers and again we have discussed in other videos, for Americans it may be possible to get their companies certified under the provisions of the US-Thai Treaty of Amity and basically overcome these Foreign Business Act issues because essentially the terms of the Treaty supersede the terms of the FBA, but for nationals of other countries, they don't have that particular luxury. As a practical matter, oftentimes folks opt to end up partnering with a Thai rather than needing to deal with quite honestly the rather Byzantine process of getting a Foreign Business License. Whatever you ultimately opt to do, it is good to understand that when looking to come in and do business here in Thailand it is highly, highly restricted.