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Working in
the country
Office
opening hours : 8h30 - 18h00
The labour force is flexible and plentiful but
under qualified, one of the government priorities
is training. There are more and more graduates
available who have been trained abroad but the
intermediary levels are very hard to find, having
no adequate qualifications.
People are rapidly hired but just as rapidly
fired.
There are now five head-hunting agencies set up in
Thailand.
Two daily papers in English publish job offers.
You can look for offers in the separate ad section
of the 'Bangkok Post'.
Your curriculum vitae has to be written in English
with the titles underlined. All your diplomas must
be mentioned as foreign diplomas are appreciated in
Thailand.
The interview is an important moment when the
Thailandese employer will evaluate your ability to
adapt to the Asian environment and your level of
English. Make sure you are sitting at an equal
height to the Thai recruiting agent during the
interview.
The salaries vary depending on levels of competence
from 50,000 to 100,000 bahts a month on average, an
engineer can earn 150,000, a computer technician
80,000 bahts in Bangkok.
Health and welfare cover depends on the individual
enterprise, it is different from one to another. It
could be a private insurance scheme which is very
expensive and if that should be the case, negotiate
it with the employer.
If you are employed by a French company, you will
belong to the Caisse des Français à
l'étranger.
Investments :
The legal reforms undertaken by the government are
aimed at opening up the market even more to
foreigners (ABL - the Alien Business Act) and to
facilitate their implantation in the country (laws
on acquiring landed property, real estate and
commercial property).
The reforms concerning landed property, real estate
and commercial property came into force on the
22nd, 28th April and 19th May respectively. These
reforms intend to improve the property rights for
foreigners and allow them to efficiently use the
guarantees offered, to facilitate sales and to
attract foreign investors with foreign
currency.
The law limits the participation of foreigners in
the economic domains which are considered to be of
national interest or particularly sensititive : the
press, radio, television, agriculture, forestry,
fishing, real estate and antique dealing.
Foreigners cannot invest either in activitives
concerning national security or activities linked
to culture, traditions, local and artisanal
production or which have an impact on natural
resources and the environment.
Since July 1997 the Thailand Central Bank limits
credit for non-residents at 50 million bahts. On
the other hand, commercial and investment
transactions have no ceiling.
The first step for a foreign investor is often to
find and select a partner.
Once the decision to move into the Thai market has
been taken, the foreign investor has to protect his
rights.
-How to protect a trademark?
Registering a trade mark is the most direct way to
own and protect the rights to it.
The use of the trade mark in Thailand is not a
prerequisite condition in order to register it. A
trade mark can be registered for products and/or
services.
- How to protect a patent, a design and industrial
model or a registered model?
Unlike trade marks, the ownership of these rights
is only acquired by registering. The registered
model is a new mechanism to protect inventions with
registration conditions which are less strict than
those required for patents or designs and
models.
- How to protect copyrights?
Copyrights are automatically acquired by right of
creation. There are no ways of registering them.
However it is advisable to notify the creation with
the dept of industrial property in Thailand.
New products put on the market are sometimes
counterfeited. To avoid this, Thai laws now permit
action to be taken against counterfeiters. You have
to set up a system to guard the warehouses and
investigate 'in the field' to identify the
counterfeiters.
(source MOCI)
Formalities
Non professional journey
:
You need to have a passport which is valid for 6
months after your return date.
You need a visa if you intend to stay more than 15
days, you can get this at the Embassy.
A visa will enable you to stay up to 2 months in
the country.
It only takes 2 or 3 days to get this visa from the
Embassy in Paris.
When you apply for it you will need two identity
photos, your passport and your return airticket or
a travel certificate made by the travel agency.
Going
for professional reasons:
To
work in Thailand you need a work permit.
It is the employer who deals with these
formalities.
A work permit is nominative, both for the person
and the company, and differs depending on the
job.
Thai companies can only employ foreign personnel if
their Thai effective is 7 times superior.
Also the number of work permits a company can have
depends on the size of the company's capital, a
company with a capital of 50 million bahts has a
right to 50 work permits.
Health
There
are no obligatory vaccins for visiting the country
but if you are staying a long time it is advisable
to be vaccinated against rabies, as well as having
your polio, tetanos etc up to date, and get a
hepatitis B shot. There is a risk of malaria,
particularly in the country side and in the north
of the country, less in the main towns. The
mosquitoes are highly resistant to Nivaquine, get
advice from your doctor and tell him the zone you
are visiting.
Take a small
first aid box with you and any pills that you take
on a regular basis. Although hygiene conditions are
extremely good, it is better to drink bottled water
and to have an insurance which covers repatriation
in case of a serious illness or accident.
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