Thailand Country Profile

Famous as one of the world’s premier tourism destinations, Thailand is a thriving domestic and export economy.

Famous as one of the world’s premier tourism destinations, Thailand is a thriving domestic and export economy.

Key Features of the Thai Market

  • Robust consumer market with 70 million people and further access to ASEAN population of 600 million.
  • Second largest economy in Southeast Asia, third largest export base in ASEAN.
  • Total of 13 FTA’s with AFTA, ASEAN, Australia,  China, Chile, India, Japan,  New Zealand, Peru and South Korea as well as RCEP. Negotiations are currently ongoing with EFTA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and EU is expected to follow.
  • Thailand’s top 5 export categories in 2021 were motor cars, parts and accessories, automatic data processing machine, rubber products, polymers of ethylene, propylene and precious stones and jewellery.
  • Thailand is known as “Detroit of Asia” with more than 2 million cars produced by all major brands incl. Mercedes and BMW.
  • Building on the success of the Eastern Seaboard, the Thai government is presently developing the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), a flagship megaproject that aims to become the ASEAN-leading economic zone for industrial, infrastructure, and urban development.
  • Prime office space in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, is an outstanding value. As compared to other leading cities in the region, Bangkok is nearly half of the cost of Ho Chi Minh City, only 40% of the cost of Seoul and Singapore.
  • Superior service sector used as gold standard in the hospitality sectors around the world.
  • Thailand is repeatedly ranked as the most favoured country to live as an expatriate with value for money in terms quality of living, superior infrastructure, international standard hospitals and schools; superior holiday destinations and restaurants from all the world’s kitchens.
  • Bangkok is one of the best connected cities in Asia with direct flight to all major cities in Europe, Asia and Australia and as such a great place to locate a regional headquarter for Asia.

SWOT Analysis Thailand

Strengths

  • Geographic position in the centre of ASEAN
  • Thailand’s home market 70 million with easy access through FTAs to the ASEAN+ markets
  • Leading automotive producer, all major brands produced in Thailand
  • Highly skilled workers. Precision
  • One of the most attractive countries to live as an expatriate

Weaknesses

  • Government bureaucracy, especially for visa/work permits and licencing
  • Educational system with few outstanding students
  • Very hard to get access to financial capital
  • Lack of language competence
  • Focus on OEM products with few own brands.
  • Overreliance on foreign labour for low paid jobs

Opportunities

  • Ability to expand production base into neighbouring countries
  • Growing middle class with economic strength
  • Thailand’s status as “Kitchen of the World”

Threats

  • Rising production costs
  • Country stuck in the middle income trap
  • Income inequality
  • Political instability with threats of military intervention even if this does not affect businesses
  • Overexploitation of tourism destinations in regard to environment

Our Experience

  • 15 years experience in executing projects in many sectors from industrial to FMCG sectors
  • Representation of high profile foreign companies in Thailand
  • Senior partner has 40 years experience in Thailand and is multilingual

Our Reach

  • Wide network in many industries
  • Senior partner is current and past president of the Norwegian Chamber of Commerce and sits on Thailand’s Board of Trade

Our Core Services

  • Market Entry
  • Market Expansion
  • Corporate Representation
  • Recruitment
Managing Partner – Thailand

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