EABC hosts an Exclusive Dinner Talk Series by H.E. DR. Wissanu Krea-Ngam, Deputy Prime Minister,

EABC hosts an Exclusive Dinner Talk Series on
“Ease of Doing Business and Transparency Upgrade: Thailand’s Facilitation Act” by H.E. DR. Wissanu Krea-Ngam, Deputy Prime Minister, Kingdom of Thailand

The Licensing Facilitation Act B. E. 2558, approved by the National Legislative Assembly and promulgated in January 2015 and becoming effective in July 2015, is presented as a service revamp to speed up the Government official approval process and public services for Thai and foreign citizens and businesses. The Act is envisaged to reform the Thai bureaucratic system and enhance the transparency and accountability as as well as improving standards of public services.

To simplify government procedure and shorten processing time, every government agency must establish a one-stop-service centre in accordance to the Act. Together, a citizen manual must be provided by the permitting authorities, stating clear requirements such as processing time, related fee, etc. If an agency cannot complete the approval within the time stated in the citizen manual, it must notify the applicant in writing every seven days until the consideration process is completed. Failure to do so constitutes a dereliction of duty under the Thai criminal penal code.

Dr. Wissanu Krea-ngam, emphasised that “Besides the key benefits aiming for faster, easier, and cheaper; government procedure; this Act encourages a strong incentive for agencies to perform better. It challenges agencies to seek continuous improvements, such as by shortening service time, establishing one stop service centres, and increasing use of ICT to improve convenience”.

The Licensing Facilitation Act is thus an important step taken by the current Government with an effort to upgrade ease of doing business in Thailand, increase transparency, accountability and also to stem out corruption.  Continuous improvement is also another key aspiration of the law.

 “To drive improvement, legal and regulatory review is required every 5 years to see whether government approvals are still necessary, or if it can be replaced with more convenient and less time consuming measures. We believe these key features of the law will improve our ease of doing business and greatly benefit foreign businesses operating in Thailand, as well as those considering entering the country. Mundane tasks will truly be mundane; only made faster, easier, and cheaper” Dr. Wissanu added.

The EABC was established in 2011 with the purpose of being the voice of European Business in Thailand through various forms of dialogues and position/ recommendations papers towards strengthening the competitiveness of Thai economy and establishing an equal playing field for European companies doing business in the country. The EABC’s annual position papers covering many topics across 10 working groups have been used extensively in dialogue with many stakeholders, including European investors, Thai and European government authorities.Mr. Rolf-Dieter Daniel, President of EABC, said “It’s encouraging to see that Thailand is taking an important step forward with the introduction of the Public Service Facilitation Act.  This is a legal milestone in the right direction to improve and simplify business operations for companies interacting with Thai Government Authorities, ensure more transparency which consequently will attract new trade and investment to the country.”

Mrs. Lyn Kok, EABC Vice President and Chairperson of EABC Cross Sectoral Issues Working Group commented, “I am delighted that the government has recognized the EABC‘s recommendations on the need for enhanced transparency in government policies and guidelines. The most important thing for business is the enabler that helps deliver business predictability as this will help improve overall trade and investment climate. 

We are hopeful that the new Facilitation Act will help bring more transparency and ease of doing business to Thailand and promote the Kingdom as the hub for trade and investment in the region, especially upon the imminent arrival of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).”