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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
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Goethe Institute: Literacy Night SEA Helpdesk: Trade Secrets in ThailandInterview: Nicolas LeloupSchool News: LesebegeisterungLegal Update: Thai Legal News Flash from Roedl & Partner
Bangkok often gets a bad rap for many things; persistent and cha-otic traffic, lack of green spaces, polluted canals, unfriendly taxi drivers, long lines at immigration at the airport, an overwhelming bureaucracy, you name it. Take the traffic, for example. I was recently travelling overseas and found that traffic in Zurich and Frankfurt was just as bad as in Bangkok, if not worse. When was the last time you found yourself waiting in the immi-gration line at JFK Airport, or going through Heathrow Airport on your way from Asia to Europe? You would be surprised that travelling in and out of Suvarnabhumi Airport is not as bad as people say. Just like any big metropolitan city of the world,
Bangkok has its goods and bad sides. When you look at Bangkok and its variety of delicious foods and exotic culture, its high-quality and reasonably priced hospitality offers, or its vibrating nightlife, then you start to realise that it is a great city to live and work in, es-pecially for younger people. It is no surprise that Bangkok beat London and New York in being the world’s most visited city in 2016 (source: Master Card Global Destination Cities Index 2016), partly because of its low living costs and endless opportunities for dining and en-tertainment. So next time we are stuck in traffic let us nevertheless appreciate how privileged we are to live in a great city composed of so many great people.
One could argue that the govern-ment’s ongoing efforts to reform the economic and social structure Thailand’s society is moving into the right direction. If the govern-ment focuses further on tackling corruption, upgrading aviation standards, increasing transpar-ency on customs procedures, im-
DEAR FRIENDS AND MEMBERS OF THE STCC
THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
PRESIDENT BRUNO G. ODERMATT
STCC CALENDARThursday 13th October 2016: STCC Stamm at Amari Boulevard Hotel, 18:00
Monday, 17th October 2016: EABC : Bank of Thailand Speech – Dinner at Sofitel
Wednesday 19th November 2016: Business Reception @ Embassy , with Swiss General Enterprise (by invitation only)
Tuesday, 1st November 2016:EAC Cultural Seminar for Thai and Foreign Manager, details to follow
Thursday 10th November 2016: STCC Stamm at Amari Boulevard Hotel, 18:00
Saturday 26th November 2016: Swiss Society Bangkok: Racclette evening at Swiss Embassy
More details for above events please wait for the invitation-mail or get it from www.swissthai.com, click on “events”.
SERVICE
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
proving the education system, amending laws and regulations to facilitate trade, investment, and the ease of doing business, then it should be able to move the economy into a sustainable growth modus. All aforemen-tioned efforts are high on the agenda of the current govern-ment and, if you include the cre-ation of special economic zones and the promotion of 10 targeted industries, then the only missing piece is the swift and proper im-plementation of those policies. Hence, there are many reasons to be cautiously optimistic about economic growth in Thailand.
To no surprise, Swiss voters have clearly rejected a people’s initi-ative that called for an increase of 10% in benefits from the state retirement fund (AHV). The cost would have been an extra 4 billion CHF a year from 2018, increasing to 5,5 billion CHF in 2030. What was interesting is the fact that all German speaking cantons voted against it, whereas the majority of the French speaking cantons and the Italian speaking canton of Ticino voted for it. Even more surprising was that the same vot-ers approved a new surveillance law, which would provide the Swiss intelligence agencies with enhanced powers, such as phone tapping and email surveillance, which were previously banned, irrespective of circumstances. The proponents of this law insisted that it does not imply generalised surveillance and tried to distance
itself from the worrisome surveil-lance practises of the USA and other major powers. For those of us old enough to remember the scandal in 1989, when Swiss citi-zens learned that security services had created and compiled files on 900,000 individuals, including de-tails about political and trade un-ion affiliations, this vote leaves us with uneasy feelings. It leaves the door open for inappropriate levels of surveillance and could pose a threat to freedom of expression.
We are a quite active Chamber and from September to December there are many great events lined up. You can find them on our web-site www.swissthai.com under the rubric “Events”. Please pencil in 19th October in your diary, as we will have another business net-working evening hosted by the Swiss Embassy on their premises. On 1st November we are going to have an enlightening workshop on cultural factors in global manage-ment.
I am looking forward to seeing you again at one of our events.
With my best wishes
Bruno G. OdermattPresident
***Contact the President:Bruno G. OdermattPresident [email protected]: +66 2 652 1911
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MEMBER DETAIL UPDATESDo you have changes among your delegates or changes to your e-mail, mobile, telephone, or fax numbers? Please send all updates to [email protected]
MEMBERSHIP FEES 2016Please verify with your accounting that the membership fee is paid and kindly make sure that thecopy of the payment is sent to [email protected] , we have received over 20 “blind payments” without identification.
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
LITERARISCHE NACHT IM GOETHE INSTITUT
The below report, literacy nights at the Goethe Institute is a contribu-tion from Markus Rupprecht from the Swiss Society Bangkok. We inten-tionally did not translate it into Eng-lish because the Night was all about German/Swiss culture and German Literature. How would we translate “Wetterschmöker”, weather gour-met, weather taster, weather smeller, weather breather ….. be my guest.
This is an exception for an exception-al night. Thank You Markus for con-tributing.
Unsere und die deutsche Botschaft, das Goethe Institut, die „SWISS“ und die Thailändisch-Deutsche Gesellschaft luden für den 22. September zu einem interessant-en Abend ein: Die 4. Literarische Nacht (oder eher die literarische Abend-gesellschaft - ich hätte
mir eine ganze Nacht gewünscht!) begann um 18.00 Uhr mit einem köstlichen Finger Food Buffet. Die fröhliche Gesellschaft machte dann im neu renovierten Goethesaal Bekanntschaft mir den Krimi- und Sachbuchautoren Michael Jo-hannes Theurillat und Franz Dobler. Begrüsst wurden wir von der neuen Leiterin des Goetheinstitutes Frau Dr. Maren Niemeyer und den Mod-eratorinnen Frau Prof. Dr. Khun Ko-rakoch und Frau Dr. Antje Streit, die die beiden Autoren vorstellten:
Franz Dobler wurde 1959 im Schongau, in Bayern geboren, er ist nicht nur Schriftsteller, son-dern auch Journalist und DJ. Neben Romanen und Sammlungen von Erzählungen veröffentlicht er seit 1988 auch Sachbücher und ist als Herausgeber verschieden-er Musik–Kompilationen tätig. In
seiner Arbeit befasst er sich mit kulturellen (Schwerpunkt auf Pop-kultur/Subkultur) und politischen Themen. Im Mittelpunkt stehen häufig Kritik an konservativen Kräften im heimatlichen Bayern, aber auch die Zuneigung zu pro-gressiven Figuren und sympa-thisch-schrägen Gestalten eben-dort. Dobler lebt mit seiner Familie in Augsburg. Seit 1988 hat er viele Bücher geschrieben, in Filmen mitgespielt und Musik gemacht.
Michael Theurillat wurde 1961 in Ba-sel geboren, studierte Wirtschafts-wissenschaft, Kunstgeschichte und Geschichte. 1996 promovierte er in Finanzwissenschaft. Er arbeitete für den Schweizerischen Bankv-erein und half bei der Fusion mit der damaligen Bankunion mit. Er wurde anschliessend Managing Direktor der UBS. 1996 veröffen-
GOETHE INSTITUTE
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
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tlichte er ein Sachbuch unter dem Titel „Der Schweizer Aktienmarkt“, eine empirische Untersuchung im Lichte der neueren Effizienz-markt-Diskussion.
In seiner zweiten Lebenshälfte be-gann Michael Theurillat ein neues Leben: er begann, Geschichten zu schreiben. Bekannt ist er für seine Kriminalromane mit dem Protago-nisten Kommissar Eschenbach.
Einige Kollegen stellten sich sein neues Leben abgehoben vor: in ein-er Hängematte am Strand, wo ihn Engel in Bikinis umschwärmten, ihm Pina Coladas und andere Köstlichkeiten servierten und einer Sekretärin, die seine Inspirationen fleissig zu Papier brachte. Er liess sie in ihrem Glauben, doch liess er uns wissen, dass sein Schriftstell-ern ein ziemlicher Knochenjob sei.
Für den Krimi „Rütlischwur“ erhielt
Michael Theurillat 2012 den Glaus-er-Preis*. Ich habe das Buch inzwis-chen gelesen und bin begeistert, es ist eine ausgezeichnete, positive, beeindruckende Geschichte.
Beide Autoren lasen aus ihren neus-ten Erscheinungen vor: Franz Dobler aus seinem Buch „Ein Bulle im Zug“ und Michael Theurillat aus „Wetter-schmöcker“. Die Autoren begnügen sich nicht mit reiner Kriminalität, sie beleuchten Hintergründe und Theurillat stellt die Handlungen in eine sorgfältig recherchierte Gegen-wart. Auf die Frage, wer denn ihre Vorbilder seien war beider Antwort: Der Schweizer Friedrich Glauser und der Belgier Georges Simenon. Sim-enon ist der vielleicht produktivste Krimi-Autor aller Zeiten.
In der anschliessenden Diskus-sionsrunde wurde unter anderem gefragt was eine zukünftige Krim-ischreiberin brauche? „10% Inspi-
ration und 90% Transpiration“ war, zusammengefasst, die Antwort! Leider lagen keine Bücher zum Verkauf auf, es wurde uns aber versichert, dass wir den Wetter-schmöcker und den Bullen im Zug in kurzer Zeit bei der Schweizer-ischen Botschaft oder dem Goethe Institut kaufen könnten. Es wird sich lohnen.
Das Verzeichnis der Publikationen kann unter dem Namen der Autor-en bei Google gefunden werden.
Leider ging die Literarische Nacht schon um 9.30 Uhr zu Ende.
*Friedrich Charles Glauser gebor-en 4. Februar 1896 in Wien; † 8. Dezember 1938 in Nervi bei Genua, war ein Schweizer Schriftsteller. Die Geschichten um Wachtmeister Studer dürfte vielen Schweizern bekannt sein.
GOETHE INSTITUTE
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
SOUTHEAST ASIA - SME HELPDESK
TRADE SECRETS IN THAILANDThailand and the EU: a background for SMEs
Thailand is the second largest economy in south-east Asia after Indonesia, acting as an ‘anchor economy’ for the neighbouring developing economies of Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Heavi-ly export-dependent, with more than two-thirds of GDP generat-ed by exported products, Thai-land exports over EUR 93.5 bil-lion worth of goods and services annually, over EUR 17 billion of which go to EU countries.
Thailand is the EU’s third largest trading partner in the ASEAN re-gion, and is Thailand’s third larg-est trading partner overall (after Japan and China). In March 2013, negotiations were launched for an EU-Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in order to better facilitate trade and regulate intellectual property and fair competition.
Prominent Thai industrial sectors include, electric appliances, com-ponents, computer components and vehicles.
Thailand is a signatory to both the Paris Convention for the Pro-tection of Industrial Property, and the Patent Cooperation Trea-ty (PCT) and has acceded to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on the Trade Related
Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPs). In addition, Thai-land is currently overhauling its major IP laws, with particular fo-cus on the Trademark Act and the Copyright Act.
In March 2013 Thailand launched the National IPR Centre of En-forcement (NICE) as a coordinat-ing enforcement body and has had a dedicated Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court (CIPITC) since 1997. This being said, disturbance caused by the recent military coup in 2014 has slowed legislative develop-ment, and enforcement practices are also still somewhat lacking for the time being.
This being said, Thailand’s cur-rent legislation meets the criteria necessary under its international obligations and there is a com-prehensive framework in place for registration of all major IPRs which EU SMEs should take ad-vantage of when seeking to do business in the country.
What are trade secrets?
In simple terms, a ‘trade secret’ is any information in the field of technology and/or business which is maintained confidential by its owner and has economic value when used in business activities. Such information can include
methods of productions, methods of processing, sales methodology, customer databases, product reci-pes, or any other information with potential economic value.
Trade secrets in Thailand
Trade secrets have enjoyed express protection in Thailand since 2002 and is currently under review again by the Parliament.
Trade secrets are ‘unregistered rights’ and as such do not require registration to be protected by That law. However, unlike most jurisdictions, trade secrets can be recorded with the Thai De-partment of Intellectual Proper-ty (DIP). Only basic information is required for this recordal, and efficient recording strategies can be set up without actually dis-closing essential contents of the trade secret.
Trade secrets are protected (whether registered or unregis-tered) provided that they fulfil three specific criteria, as follows:
1. The information is confidential (i.e. non-public)
2. It has real or potential economic value
3. Necessary measures have been taken to protect its secrecy.
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
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The third criteria is met by com-panies’ introduction and adher-ence to standard procedures for data protection. These proce-dures must cover physical, tech-nical, and contractual measures in order to be effective;
Physical measures: These usual-ly consist of exercise of control over physical documents, for ex-ample marking sensitive materi-al as ‘confidential’ or ‘trade se-cret’, controlling who has access to these documents, and locking material away when not in use.
Technical measures: These include the setting up of controls over ac-cess to electronic information, including password protection of servers or folders in which sensi-tive material is kept, installation of adequate firewall software etc.
Contractual measures: These measures relate directly to staff and partner concerns. All employ-ment contracts should include ad-equate provisions for the non-dis-closure of any sensitive material
that the employee may be given access to, especially those who will be working directly with this data. Furthermore, any partners, e.g. local manufacturers etc should be asked to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) prior to any exchange of information.
As long as information is ade-quately protected there is no time limit to trade secret protection, however the legal protection lapses as soon as the information becomes widely known or public knowledge. As such, enforcement proceedings against suspected parties promptly before any ma-terial is released.
Companies can assist the courts by having their own security mon-itoring in place, including CCTV recording and recorded entry/exit data of rooms where physi-cal documents are held, as well as electronic monitoring of file access and copying etc.
The South-East Asia IPR SME Helpdesk supports small and me-
dium sized enterprises (SMEs) from European Union (EU) mem-ber states to protect and enforce their Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in or relating to South-East Asian countries, through the pro-vision of free information and services. The Helpdesk provides jargon-free, first-line, confiden-tial advice on intellectual prop-erty and related issues, along with training events, materials and online resources. Individual SMEs and SME intermediaries can submit their IPR queries via email ([email protected]) and gain access to a panel of experts, in order to receive free and confidential first-line advice within 3 working days.
The South-East Asia IPR SME Help-desk is co-funded by the European Union.
To learn more about the South-East Asia IPR SME Helpdesk and any aspect of intellectual prop-erty rights in South-East Asia, please visit our online portal at http://www.ipr-hub.eu.
SOUTHEAST ASIA - SME HELPDESK
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
INTERVIEW
NICOLAS LELOUP, GENERAL MANAGER SAMITIVEJ HOSPITAL, BANGKOKNicolas, Thank you for accepting our invitation to this interview.
Health Care is a major issue for our Swiss Thai Chamber of Commerce (STCC) members. Many watch the news from Switzerland. Just recently there was the announce-ment of a 4% increase for com-pulsory health insurances and it seems health care cost only go up. Is this similar in Thailand? How about at the Samitivej Hospital?
Thank you for your invitation. The price of healthcare is driven by sev-eral factors, some local, some glob-al. When it comes to facilities infra-structure, manpower – medical as well as non-medical staff, medicine and investigation, we are in a local market, regulated by the Thai gov-ernment. However, medical train-ing, medical equipment and other aspects are part of a global market. We are naturally very proud to of-fer the latest medical innovations to our patients, and import equip-ment from Europe, America or Ja-pan. But these equipment require a huge R&D investment, which is built into the price. Since we know the life span of a piece of equip-ment, which is dictated by either utilization or technological obso-lescence, we need to pay back this
investment over the course of its life span. I can give you an exam-ple at our Samitivej clinic in Yan-gon, Myanmar. We wanted to have a mammogram for women’s health checkup. But once we had consid-ered the cost of the equipment and the number of eligible expatriate women in Yangon, we realized that we would have to charge unreason-able prices for a standard exam. We just couldn’t do it.
And then, there is an element of strategy. Last year, we opened our new Critical Care Complex, with 8 new state of the art operating theaters. This is a 2 year projects from conception to construction, and represents a significant invest-ment for the hospital. Yet, the hos-pital management decided against increasing surgery prices. We con-sidered this investment as part of increasing patient safety all the while improving the work environ-ment of our surgeons.
There is a current dynamic re-garding the Asian Economic Community (AEC). How can your hospital take advantage? Spe-cifically, do you see increased opportunities of foreign nurses, doctors and specialists to be em-ployed at your hospital?
We took the implications of AEC for Samitivej Hospitals very seriously and we conducted several stud-ies. The main finding was that Thai doctors wouldn’t necessarily be tempted by working in other AEC countries. Thailand has good med-ical schools, good hospitals, good standard of care, and it is gener-ally a good place to practice med-icine. However, Thai nurses might be tempted to go overseas where their high skills are sought after and would be rewarded. When also considering that there is an overall shortage of nurses in Thailand, this could potentially be damaging for
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
the hospitals. So our HR depart-ment is working very hard on de-veloping clear career paths for our medical staffs, Continual Medical Education programs, international exchange programs with our part-ner hospitals in Japan and Ameri-ca, and a stronger emphasis work life balance. On the other hand, we have also welcomed medical staff from Myanmar, as Myanmar pa-tients is the second largest foreign patient population after Japanese patients. They are all working at our Myanmar Medical Center.
A large portion of our members are people who do or have done business in Thailand i.e. they
have their families here and have settled. Going to an internation-al hospital sometimes means to compete for services with tourists (long queuing, busy doctors etc.) Do you specifically address the lo-cal expat community? Any special offerings for STCC members? I see where you are coming from with this question. Actually, Sami-tivej has traditionally always been focused on Bangkok and Thailand to a certain extend. The majori-ty of our patients, by far, are Thai patients. The second largest group are Japanese patients, which are all expats. And up until recently, you’d have all the Western expats
as our third largest patient group. However, we have seen an increase of oversea patients through the increase of tourists visiting Thai-land, but also, from neighboring countries which do not benefit from good healthcare providers. I already mentioned about Myanmar patients. The way we go about this is by creating a separate patient flow. We have the Japanese Med-ical Center for Japanese patients, Myanmar Medical Center for My-anmar patients, International Cus-tomer Service for Western expats and now a Chinese Medical Center. We feel it is better for everyone as new patients find services tailored to their own needs and habits, and
INTERVIEW
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
INTERVIEW
existing patients do not have to suffer a decrease in service, as you mentioned in your question.
For STCC members, I believe we have a privilege card which gives discount on medicine, lab, imag-ing and room rate in case of hos-pital stay.
A hot issue always coming up when discussing health care in Thailand is the relationship of the health care provider with the patient’s insurance company. In Switzer-land you show your insurance card at the reception and your health care business is taken care of. How does Samitivej address this impor-tant issue.
Samitivej works with all major in-surance companies and we have an Insurance Department that helps communicating and coordinat-ing between patient, insurer and hospital. However, we work with tenths of insurance companies, in-suring patients from over hundred countries, and basically each policy is different. As a rule of thumb, I would say this: for OPD case, it is mostly pay and claim, for IPD case you need to have a pre-approval. For emergency case, you need to be able to indicate your insurer to the hospital, so it is probably best to keep your insurance card or a copy of it in your wallet. And if in doubt, go to the Customer Service depart-ment and they’ll clear it for you.
The Samitivej hospital is a loyal member of the STCC. Thank You for
that! How do you profit from this affiliation.
Over the years, we have had many Swiss patients coming to Sami-tivej. So thank you as well for the trust. Being a member of STCC is very important to us. I see that as a way to stay in tune with the community. This is the best way to get feedback, understand the issues faced by our patients and how to best serve them.
Nicolas Leloup, does neither sound Thai nor German. I am guessing French…… tell us about yourself and your adventure in Thailand.
Yes, you’re correct. I speak some German if that has any redeem-ing value.
I met my wife while studying in the US, we were both in the same MBA program, and she happened to be Thai. So I really did not have much choice but moving to Thai-land, already 10 years ago. I have been with Samitivej for almost 7 years. And I should thank my wife more because both decisions have been great.
Here you get the opportunity to give us the elevator sales pitch. Why Samitivej, short within 30s…..
I honestly believe that we are one of the top private hospital in Thailand. What sets us apart is the fact that this hospital was founded by doctors, and to this
day is managed by doctors. All our hospital executives are doc-tors who started as practitioners at Samitivej, and 20 years later they are running the hospital. The focus is on medicine.
Nicolas, how could the Thai gov-ernment help you to make your business and/or your personal life easier?
Actually, the Thai government is helping a lot by positioning Thailand as the hub of medical tourism in South-East Asia. TAT has organized several large scale marketing campaigns, most no-tably via Amazing Thailand, to promote the Thai health indus-try. They have also opened up the door somewhat for private hospitals to take part in research and clinical trials, which will promote innovation within our doctors. For example, right now, in collaboration with Sony and Olympus, we are developing new 3D monitors that are used in our new operating theaters for lapa-roscopic surgeries.
The concern is for human resourc-es. It will become a necessity to ed-ucate and train more care givers in the future.
Nicolas, in the name of the STCC, I thank you very much for your time and effort to take this interview…
You’re welcome and thank you for having me.
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
RIS SWISS SECTION DEUTSCHSPRACHIGE SCHULE BANGKOK
SWISS AUTHOR MICHAEL THEURILLAT AND GERMAN AUTHOR FRANZ DOBLER VISIT RIS SWISS SECTION - DEUTSCHSPRACHIGE SCHULE BANGKOK
On 22.09.2016, RIS Swiss Sec-tion - Deutschsprachige Schule Bangkok hosted Swiss author Michael Theurillat and German author Franz Dobler. Visiting authors and journalists are not uncommon for the school and are a great opportunity for the students to meet creative and in-novative people in person.
Born in Basel, Michael Theuril-lat studied business administra-
tion, art history and history. In 2000, he quit his job as an ex-ecutive with the Swiss bank UBS to write full-time. Theurillat’s novels follow the investigations of Kommissar Eschenbach, an investigator with the Zurich po-lice. His books have been com-mercially successful; his third novel, Sechseläuten, was at the head of the Swiss bestseller lists following its publication. The Basler Zeitung called him one
of Switzerland’s most successful crime writers.
Franz Dobler was born in 1959 in Schongau, and now lives in Augs-burg. He has published novels, stories, non-fiction, and poetry, for which he was awarded the Bayerischen Literatur-Förder-preis. A Cop on the Train was his third novel and was awarded the Deutscher Krimipreis 2015 (Ger-man Crime Fiction Prize 2015).
Vordere Reihe v.l.n.r: M. Schumacher, Teacher/J. Eggert Vice Principal/ F. Dobler/ M. Theurillat/ S. Dörig Principal
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
RIS SWISS SECTION DEUTSCHSPRACHIGE SCHULE BANGKOK
The new Oxford Reading Tree materi-als make this possible. Both groups have the same books – the German Basis Level in German, the English Basis Level in English. This way it is possible to read one´s favourite book in the other language, too.
Reading for pleasure is the best way to develop a life-long love for reading!
THE GERMAN AND ENGLISH BASIS LEVEL STUDENTS ARE PROUDLY WORKING ON THEIR READING SKILLS BY READING WHOLE BOOKS
The sequel to this title “Ein Schlag ins Gesicht” (A Slap in the Face) will be published in 2016.
Both authors read excerpts from their novels and then discussed the
content and their writing with the young audience. They really met the challenge of addressing the students from our grades 9 - 12 successfully and managed to involve the students and excite them about literature.
RIS Swiss Section - Deutschspra-chige Schule Bangkok was able to host these interesting guests with the help and support of the Swiss and German Embassies in Bangkok.
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
RIS SWISS SECTION DEUTSCHSPRACHIGE SCHULE BANGKOK
Important public events in the school year 2015-16:
13.10.2016 Annual General Meeting of SEA26.10.2016 Austrian National Day11.11.2016 Lantern Parade (KG - Grade 3 - evening) 14.11.2016 Loy Krathong – Day 17.11.2016 Open House Day (7.30 – 14.40)14.12.2016 Christmas Party (from 13:00)
Please visit our website - www.ris-swiss-section.org - and get more information about our upcoming events.
This event on 28th September 2016, in cooperation with FCD Prevention Works™, had the goal of explaining the chemical and psychological ef-fects of drugs on our bodies as well as to present methods for strength-ening the students’ personalities.
FCD Prevention Works™ is a leading international nonprofit provider of school-based substance abuse
prevention services and FCD has worked worldwide to provide stu-dents and the adults who care for them with the knowledge, under-standing, and skills they need to make intelligent, healthy choices about alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. The event was held by Sarah Burrill and Jose Rowe Pala-fox to help our students in Grades 7 and 8 develop the skills they need
to become healthy, responsible adults. The teachers did not take part in the students´ session to allow them to share their opinions and ideas in an even more frank and open way.
Additional to the session for the students FCD also offered pres-entations for parents and faculty members.
DRUG PREVENTION DAY AT RIS SWISS SECTION – DEUTSCHSPRACHIGE SCHULE BANGKOK
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
MEMBER CONTRIBUTION
WHAT ABOUT SNAKES?All in this world began with a snake. An innocent couple and a red apple were also part of the game. I guess you know this story.
Had the couple, Adam and Eve, been Chinese instead of Western-ers we would probably not be in such a mess.
Why? Had Eve offered the apple to her Chinese husband, he would have thrown away the apple, grabbed the snake and fried it. Problem solved - paradise would still prevail.
I was enjoying the summer holi-days with relatives in the Alps on the lake of Melchsee-Frutt (Cen-tral Switzerland). I was about eight years old and I climbed up a rock face. No, no, no, not to pluck Edelweiss but to watch them grow. Over the edge I swung my legs and landed on a small flat stony floor next to a beautiful bush of Edelweiss and next to a bunch of
sunbathing baby vipers…! With a flash we all disappeared. Now, be-lieve me, I did really not pluck an Edelweiss.
In 1980 I crossed the great desert Sahara. Near Beni-Abbes, some-where deep in the Algerian part of the Sahara, two Turgi invited me for tea with their families. It was a memorable experience. But the sweet strong mint tea with the dried dates they served was not agreeable with me. After a few hours I had to ask one of my Tuareg friends for the toilet. He took my elbow, guided me out of the tent and stretched both his arms, pointing East, then West, then South and finally North and said charmingly: « Tu peux aller par là, ou par là, ou par là, ou par là » (you can go here, or here, or here, or here!)” Ah, I see he is a rich man; he owns many toilets namely each bush or rock.” I went behind a bush, pulled down my trousers and squatted down.
Suddenly the bush became alive and a snake left the crime scene. I guess I conquered it with the smell….
Twice, in 2004 and 2006 I spent several weeks in the fascinating region of Central Asia like Uz-bekistan, Tajikistan, Kirgizstan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan – most interesting places and full of historical events we nev-er learned or heard in school. Amongst Samarkand, Bukhara, Kiev and Urgench I was intrigued by the ancient city Merv (also Mary) in Turkmenistan. Founded
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in 6th century BC it developed into one of the most important cities along the Silk Road. It flourished and became proba-bly the largest city in the world around 10th century AD. The Mongol army arrived (in 1221) under General Tolui, the son of Genghis Khan, and erased the city completely, massacring the entire population. Estimations of the beheaded people are from 800.000 to 1 Million. Only 400 artisans were deported.
Over miles you can see piles of rubbles, now a heaven for any historian and antiquarian.
I strolled between old ruins and near the end of the day I got tired. But I still wished to see one big palace which harbored an old caravansary. Walking through a narrow corridor I ob-served 3 sticks on the floor. Ex-actly the right thing to support my aching body. I bent down
and tried to pick the straightest of those. Just before I touched the selected stick it sneaked away between my legs. No I did not faint but my guide had to be brought back to life…
Summers later I was enjoying again a relaxing weekend in the lovely Lantau-home.
The kitchen is a separate build-ing adjoining the main house. The length of the kitchen is about four meters and the width about 1.5 meters. Along the right wall are two gas cookers, an open wooden fire place and two elec-tric stoves on a stone sledge about 70 cm above the floor. One morning, still half asleep and half dressed, I went into the kitchen to brew some coffee. Af-ter two steps the wooden pole be-hind the stoves started to move. Wooden pole? I do not have wooden poles in the kitchen, or do I? It started to form a kind of a
Z. Ayeeeh, it was a big snake and she positioned her attack. She swayed her head gently. Now, no longer half asleep and half naked since goose-pimples cov-ered my entire body, I looked her deep in the eyes, grasped slowly a broom nearby and raised it at a snail pace. She still swayed her head and stared into my eyes. No more slow motion but with light-ning speed I smashed the broom over her head and held it down. What now? She started furiously to wind herself out and, luckily, I got hold of a knife and cut her head with a single stroke. Now I suddenly felt naked.
What a waste. A two-meter long snake for free and the Chinese eat the famous snake dishes only in December and January – this happened in July.
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OCTOBER 2016 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #75
Reduced VAT rate extended again
The cabinet approved an extension of the 7% value- added tax (VAT) rate for another 12 month period, until Sept 1, 2017, after Thailand’s Ministry of Finance had issued a statement containing its intent to extend the reduced VAT rate. The reduction was previously set to end in September 2016. The stat-utory VAT rate as per the Thai Rev-enue Code is set at 10%, although it has been reduced to 7% by Royal Decree for more than 20 years al-ready. A possible increase of the VAT rate up to the maximum rate of 10% had been discussed more frequently in the recent past. The further extension of the reduced VAT rate is consistent with the Government’s ambition to support domestic spending to stabilize the national economy.
Planned change of excise tax basis
The Excise Department of Thai-land recently announced legal amendments to change the excise tax basis from the current ex-fac-tory prices to state-recommend-ed retail prices, and such amend-ments shall come into force by mid-2017.
Director General Somchai Pool-savasdi stated that the change of the calculation method will standardize the duty collection procedure while creating more fairness and transparency.
The planned excise tax restruc-turing is part of the Finance Min-istry’s tax reforms, which is also aimed to avoid certain loopholes, practiced by importers to reduce their tax bur- dens.
LEGAL UPDATE
THAI LEGAL NEWS FLASH
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LEGAL UPDATE
Seven laws such as the Liquor Act of 1950 and the Excise Tax Act of 1984 shall be integrated into a single act.
The proposed amendments are al-ready under consideration by the Council of State and will be trans-ferred to the National Legislative Assembly until the end of 2016.
New company registrations at record high
According to the latest report by the Department of Business Development (DBD) in August, the new company registrations hit a current record high, fos-tered by several government’s promotion measures and the strong tourism growth.
The Department registered a surge of 26 % of new business en-rollments compared to the same month last year, which means a total annual increase of 3 %.
The director-general of the DBD, Pongpun Gearaviriyapun said that especially government ar-rangements such as tax incen-tives to promote investments and the great tourism growth encour-aged the establishment of new enterprises, which is also proven by the rise of investment capital up to 46 % compared to last year.But it is not only the fast growing tourist sector and the tax incen-tives, which helps new companies to find their establishment on the Thai markets. The Secured Trans-
action Act, which came into force on July 4th, gives especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) the possibility of easier access to credits.
Moreover, Thailand expects an economic growth of 3,2- 3,5 %. With regard to the previous state-ments, the DBD predicts a total of 60,000-65,000 new business reg-istrations this year.
Thailand 4.0 - The way to a value-based Economy
The Thai Government is striv-ing to promote “Thailand 4.0”, a new project and economic mod-el, aimed at pulling out Thailand of the “middle-income trap“ and developing it as a high-income country. The “middle-income trap” is a situation in which a country’s growth slows after hav-ing reached the middle-income levels. Middle- income countries like Thailand are in between their low- wage competitors that domi-nate the mature industries on one side and the rich-country innova-tors that dominate industries of rapid technological change on the other side.
Thailand 4.0 focuses on a “val-ue-based economy” as the coun-try needs to deal effectively with disparities and the imbal-ance between the environment and society.
Therefore, the Government has ordered the restructuring of
the Board of Investment (BOI) to improve its ability to serve rising new investment, espe-cially in targeted value- added industries.
As a part of the “Thailand 4.0”scheme, the restructuring of the ten targeted value-added industries is expected to be con-cluded in three months in order to accelerate new investment in a timely manner. The targeted industries are automotive and auto parts, affluent, medical and wellness tourism, agriculture and biotechnology, food, robot-ics for industry, logistics and aviation, biofuels and biochem-ical’s, digital and medical ser-vices. Since the Board of Invest-ment has revised its investment target this year to 550 billion baht, up from 450 billion, the government is now focusing on attracting investors from Asian countries to boost investment in Thailand. By holding road shows in other Asian neighbor coun-tries like China, South Korea and Taiwan, the Government wants to improve their willingness to invest. In addition, the Asian countries have strong potential, as well as business models and cultures that are similar to Thai-land.
Nevertheless, Thailand will also participate at European trade fairs in order to entice firms, which are especially based in the high-technology, automo-tive, aviation and digital sector.
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LEGAL UPDATE
In order to promote and attract more investment in both high-tech and the ten targeted industries, the Department will include a new unit. The agency also seeks to re-organize its existing BOI Unit for Industrial Linkage Development to make it to be more efficient.
RCEP negotiations to be concluded by 2017
Trade ministers from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Part-nership (RCEP) comprising 16 members aim to swiftly resolve unsettled issues, which mainly include market access for trade in goods and services as well as in- vestment. Negotiations shall be concluded by October 2017. RCEP negotiations were launched in November 2012 with the aim of establishing deeper econom-ic cooperation between the 10 Asean members and six trading partners, being Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The agreement is viewed as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that includes the US while ex-cluding China.
According to Ronnarong Phoolpipat, deputy director- general of the Trade Negotiations Department, the up- coming ministerial meeting in the Philippines should clarify how to proceed with talks after the goal of concluding negotiations in 2016 has been abandoned at the recent Ase-an Summit in Laos. He stated that
the key issue for the next meeting was the modality on import tariff reductions for the remaining 20% of sensitive and highly sensitive prod-ucts under the RCEP. Concerning trade in services the non-Asean RCEP members have already proposed 120 service business categories for immediate liberalisation, including construction, health care, retail, telecommunications, tourism and transportation, while Asean pro-posed 100 service business catego-ries for foreign investment.
SET helps startups with fundraising
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) plans to set up new facili-ties under their vision of Thailand 4.0 to fundraise startups, which are focused on technological de-velopment and innovation.
Deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak informed after a meeting with the SET, the Secu-rities and Exchange Commission and the Federation of Thailand Capital Market Organizations that startups are not allowed to list on the stock market under current criteria. Because this limitation in financing options they are planning to help startups by cre-ating a whole new sector or even a bourse to serve them.
Some of the capital shall be used to create seed money, es-pecially for crowd funding or venture capital schemes, which will be used to fund sources for
startups. Moreover, the bourse should also act as a link between the startups and financial insti-tutions, such as banks.
Furthermore, the SET also plans to work closely related with startups, especially through en-trepreneurial training and ven-ture capital funding, which will grant a great ad- vantage for the startups.
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