Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Pattaya. It is kind of a speculation video, a bit of an opinion piece by me but we are discussing Pattaya, we're discussing Hong Kong. The reason I thought of making this video is I was reading a recent article which ostensibly would not have a lot to do with the topic at hand but I'll get to it, I'll make a connection here.

So the article is titled: Dragon boat racers ditch Hong Kong for Thailand. This is Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com. I urge those who are watching this video, go read that article, there is a lot of information. I'm going to quote a quick excerpt but it really doesn't get to the meat of that article. Quoting directly: "The world's top dragon boat competition will ditch Hong Kong in favor of Thailand next year due to the former's stringent Coronavirus rules, organizers said on Saturday. The 2023 World Dragon Boat Racing Championships became the latest international sports event to abandon the Chinese City, according to the Hong Kong China Dragon Boat Association. Quote: "Hong Kong's current quarantine and isolation arrangements for visitors are still more stringent than that of other countries," the group wrote on its Facebook page. So a lot going on here. Clearly the easing of restrictions in Thailand has been good, I was saying that for quite some time. They need to go away entirely; we need to put this behind us; this is done as far as I am concerned. I think most of the world agrees except for arguably some of the more hysterical places seemingly on the planet but the bigger issue though is there is a lot going on here. This is part of a broader theme if you will insofar as, we have seen, there seems to be a lot of capital flight out of Hong Kong, a lot of folks moving. Singapore seems to be picking up quite a bit but in terms of I think the longer term, if you look at what's happening in the EEC, in the Eastern Economic Corridor here in Thailand and Pattaya is part of that, it's the only incorporated municipality in that jurisdiction which makes it quite unique especially when you look at it in the context of the new rules pertaining to the EEC specifically. Meanwhile, the situation is such in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong has always had this obviously it's part of China but in my mind it has at least sort of a tangential connection to Southeast Asia, at least it always has had as it was kind of a jumping off point for foreign investment coming into this region etc.

Now with obviously Hong Kong no longer being a colony for many years now and major changes especially over the course of the last few years specifically, I just don't think Hong Kong remains the kind of international hub that it once was. I once read it in an article that this person speculated that probably Hong Kong would kind of end up much akin to Monaco in Europe where it would end up kind of a curious legal anomaly that was primarily utilized by folks and in the article they said, mostly mainland Chinese, who were using it for various Banking and minor tax benefits kind of similar to the way Monaco is sometimes used by folks in France depending on the circumstances, and I don't think that's too far off, I don't think that analysis is too far out of whack.

What is going to be interesting is yeah I think Singapore is probably picking up quite a bit from sort of the, I hesitate to call it the decline but the drawdown maybe in Hong Kong, but I think there's a lot to be said here in Thailand. I mean most notably we saw what was about a year ago, Thai Baht, the gold standard here in Thailand, Thai gold became fungible directly to the US Dollar so I think that may have something to do with a lot of different kinds of capital flight that may be moving into Thailand. The other thing is Singapore is Singapore and that is all well and good but Thailand is a lot bigger, there is a lot more space, it's a lot more relaxed I think in certain ways so I could kind of see how over time, especially the EEC and Pattaya specifically, kind of becoming what Hong Kong was maybe not recently where Hong Kong was a burgeoning financial centre but something maybe more akin to what it was maybe back in the 60s or something.