17/11 AusWathai media flew into Thailand to join a major seminar co-hosted by Aus & Thai Government.

The venue was the spectacular "Holiday in", Pattaya and well patronised: attendees of 180+ were from various business sectors.


Moderator: Chairmain Mike Courtnall from A.T.I. ensured the 180 + attendees got "value for money".
The speakers were very informative and the slide-shows were very factual. The data is definitely Newsworthy.


What we got from the event
Demonstration of collaboration and Transparency shown by Govt officials and dept leaders.,
The host graciously agreed to make the Slide-show material available, within 1 week all presenters slides will be on 1 website - now that's collaboration.

Sensational, we had no idea of the INCREDIBLE dynamics of  B.O.I. (Board of Investment Thailand), the discovery was significant. 
B.O.I. confirmed the minimum capital of aud$30,000 will trigger incentives (what we saw was Sensational).


Good news we have a follow up meeting with B.O.I.
The initial report to our investor base in Aus has already created anxiety. Perth (WA) has a healthy stable of liquid investors from the ongoing mining boom in WA.


Photo collage Arwee from AusWaThai with with Key Aus & Thai Govt Icons.
the host admin team agreed to supply copy of photos, as soon a they come to hand we will upload and attach a link




Welcoming remarksby Ms. Duangjai Asawachinachit, Deputy Secretary General, Thailand Board of Investment (B.O.I.)
Opening remarksby Simon Farenbloom, Deputy head of Mission, Australian Embassy.

Panel 1- How investors can benefit

Ms. Pimchanok Vonkorporn, Executive Director.Bureau of Multilateral Trade Negotiation, Ministry of Commerce.
exceptional delivery and insight, we are looking forward to promoting their resources.
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Mr. Mark Woods, Counsellor, Commercial Australia
excellent evidence (slide-show) of success from the TAFTA agreement and more good news
Aus Trade commissioner declared a 30% increase in Biz Visa to 9,000 in last 12 months?  
astonishing fact - 
    our 2 year survey of the visa issues is "the opposite" 

17/1/2010: confirmation received form the Aus Visa office Bangkok, make the vehement statement that:- 

"Those policy changes (14/09/2009) require visa decision-makers to fully satisfied (on the basis of information provided by the visa application) that the "work" that the applicant will undertake in Australia is:-   
highly specialised in nature, not ongoing in nature, unable to be completed by an Australian citizen or permanent resident."

with 9,000 short term biz visa approved "Thailand has many highly specialised, not ongoing in nature visitors", and that's great, we need to meet them!
Our datasbase of Aus clients want to do biz with Thailand - how do we connect???
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23/11 emailed Mr. Mark Woods.
We announced at the Seminar that we had great support from Austrade, to get started, some years ago.  We want to promote Aus & Tai trade to our biz Community and I seek collaboration with the slogan of DAFT "We have the networks and skills to help you succeed internationally".

We seek collaboration from the dept., to solve our confusion 
1. we need visa for our staff to "promote Aus & Thai biz" how do we do it?
2. we they give us 
     analytical data; how many applicants applied? how may refused, examples of the nature of work approved or refused and same case examples. 
     Do they know of anyone or can they recommend or suggest anyone we can contact?

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Dr. Bonggot Anuroj, Executive Director of Investment Marketing Bureau, Thailand Board of Investment. 
slide-show analytical data was comprehensive, make case studies to give evidence of facts.
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Panel 2- Discussion 
Experience in using FTA's by an Australian company (ARB) and a Thai Company.
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The critical bilateral message from the Seminar is captured in our photo collage
1. L.I.F.E. (Leadership, Integrity, Flexibility, Efficiency)  Life without Flexibility is a LIE 
2. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid/Short)


We raised 2 key issues to the Panel:

1. Many people need to see the presentation (PPS)
We often ask for a copy of the electronic media to show our readers/client base. The answer is "Yes" but often it doesn't happen (you begin to wonder why)

B.O.I. proactively responded, with collaboration of the presenters it was confirmed all slides will be on the B.O.I. website within a week!!!

2. Benchmarking -  with 180 attendees at the event it's impossible to meet everyone.
If attendees have details of other attendees we can benchmark.
 
Peripheral issues can be overcome. ie., Travel issues; logistics, recommendations, practical tips and general problem solving.
The panel suggested the Embassy &/or BOI office.
Unfortunately we did not make a good example of our point, that the culture of Biz people benchmarking is different to the culture of dealing with Govt agencies.,

the following examples are general and are in no way directed at any person:-
Restraints: Govt agency staffare generally forbidden from recommending services (unless it's been pre-approved) whereas biz owners will make comparisons and share recommendations.
Most prudent biz owners show a culture of fellowship; colleagues not competitors, typically unified by membership in clubs or Associations like AustCham Thailand.  Their member Directory is excellent; search by name or Activity, but they do not have a message-board. 
Real costs: Govt agency staff do not risk their capital, they generally don't have to consider all costs nor have the legacy of legal liability (and conversely the reward (profits)).


"Linked in" is an excellent FREE Electronic Network, you can search by name or activity or location, post questions and search topics. (see link below)

Networking:
During our monthly visits to/from Thailand we expose ourselves (wear Auswathai stuff & hand out Auswathai gear), it stimulates conversation and benchmarking.
The intel is added to our website/s or forum (by intelligence we mean travel tips, contacts, recommendations, logistics).

The solution for benchmarking from events/seminars
enrolment forms could include a tick box to permit their details to be public, it can be distributed so we make sure we find our targets, and the Host can publish on their website (password protected for attendees)?

We put a similar request to Austrade at an event in Perth W.A. in late 2009 (3 requests and no replies) - it's unfortunate because biz people do want to do biz!

Auswathai offer "beta" systems for Networking and knowledge base:
1. in mid 2010 we started a Biz card web database  for Aus & Thai this link   we do not show biz cards without permission (few have said no)
2. in 2009 we started a Biz forum for Aus & Thai biz - this link
3. in 2010 we created a special "Linked in" E network for Aus & Thai at "Best Networks" Aus & Thai the same site includes other Aus & Thai networks


GREAT NEWS FOR B.O.I. and West Australia

Auswathai's have database of W.A. investors (approx aud$2,000,000), they've been ready for the past 18 months but stalled, in part due to Thailands political unrest, but in the main due to confusion/obstruction with Aus Visa officer Bangkok - (all 12 but 1 visa refused)


Post event discussion with BOI officials suggest we co ordinate a roadshow to Perth WA with BOI.
We requested a meeting with B.O.I to advance talks.
Our foremost obstacle is "how do we convince the "Aus Visa office bkk" to support Aus Biz?  Our experience (12 out of 13 visa refused).
We estimate the loss of business at aud$1,000,000 

We look forward support from Thai Govt., to help us present confidence to the Aus visa office Bkk to support our Aussie owned Business (Import/Export)!

2010-11-21 - we have emailed BOI to set meetings