The emerging economies of Vietnam and Thailand both saw significant real salary increases, placing them in the global top five, with increases of 5.1% and 4.1% respectively, according to a report by ECA International.

“Workers in Vietnam and Thailand will both see further increases to their salaries as the nominal salaries expected to be given by employers stay well ahead of the low levels of inflation that these countries will see in 2020. This has been a long-term trend for both countries, as productivity continues to grow and inflation is controlled,” said Lee Quane, Regional Director – Asia at ECA International.

ECA International is the world’s leading provider of information, software and expertise for the management and assignment of employees around the world. The annual Salary Trends Report analyses current and projected salary increases for local employees in 68 countries across the world.

Asian nations dominate the top 20 once again

Asian nations lead the way again for salary increases – 13 out of the top 20 increases in real salaries have been observed in Asian countries, occupying the top five spots in the global rankings.

“Once again, the vast majority of the highest real salary increases in the world are predicted to be seen in Asia. The average real salary increase in the Asia Pacific region is forecasted to be 3.2%, which is significantly higher than the global average of 1.4% and nearly three times the European average of 1.1%. This is a trend that we have seen for many years now due to low inflation and rising productivity in many Asian economies, resulting in the rapid growth of salaries compared to other regions.”

Lee Quane, Regional Director – Asia at ECA International.

The average real salary increase for workers in Singapore is forecasted to be 3.0% above inflation in 2020, a slight drop from the 3.3% increase that was seen in 2019.

Despite a nominal increase of 4.0%, employees will see an average increase of 3.0% after factoring in the predicted inflation of 1.0%. This places Singapore in 11^th place in the Asia rankings.

“Although the forecasted real salary increase is set to be slightly lower in 2020 than the 3.3% Singapore employees saw in 2019, they will still see a larger increase than their regional neighbours such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan,” said Lee. “The notably low level of inflation that Singapore has seen over the recent years, coupled with a tight labour supply and talent restrictions due to immigration constraints, implies that salary increases will remain relatively high.”

In China, the real salary increase is again expected to be above…

Source link : Thailand among top five countries for salary hikes by Boris Sullivan

The Thai baht has been under pressure due to imbalanced capital flows in the current environment of highly uncertain and volatile external conditions, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) decided to relax regulations to facilitate capital outflows to help promote capital flow balance and lessen pressure on the baht.

Such relaxations include allowing exporters to keep foreign currency proceeds overseas, allowing retail investors to invest in foreign securities without going through a Thai intermediary institution and allowing businesses and individuals to transfer funds abroad more freely.

These relaxations will be effective 8 November 2019, with details as follows:

1. Repatriation of export proceeds

• Exporters with proceeds below USD 200,000 per bill of lading will be allowed to keep the proceeds abroad, without a time limit (a relaxation from the current USD 50,000 threshold.) In 2018, bills of lading with value less than USD 200,000 amounted to export value of over USD 100 billion, accounting for almost half of all Thai exports.
• Exporters with foreign currency proceeds exceeding the above new threshold will be allowed to use the revenues to offset foreign currency expenses, without having to repatriate the funds. Exporters can simply register with the BOT and provide necessary documentation to commercial banks, without prior approval from the BOT.
• Rules on foreign currency deposit (FCD) account held with onshore banks will be streamlined to provide flexibility in managing foreign currencies.

The above relaxations will help businesses reduce fund transfer costs and manage foreign exchange risks more efficiently. In addition, the BOT has been in discussion with the Minister of Finance to increase the threshold for export proceeds that do not need to be repatriated to USD 1 million per bill of lading within the next three months. Such proceeds account for approximately 80 percent of all exports.

2. Investment in foreign securities

• Retail investors will be allowed to invest up to USD 200,000 per year in foreign securities, without having to invest via a Thai intermediary institution. Previously, they would need to meet a specified criteria in terms of asset ownership in order to invest directly.
• The aggregate investment limit allocated to investors regulated by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will be increased to USD 150 billion. This relaxation helps facilitate the increasing demand for foreign portfolio investment. In addition, investors will be able to retain the allocated limit for investment over a longer period, thus enhancing efficiency in investment planning and management. .

3. Outward transfers

•…

Source link : BOT relaxes rules to Curb Strong Baht by Boris Sullivan

Apart from resolutions to be made by ASEAN leaders at the ASEAN Summit in November, the Thai government will seek this opportunity to hold a talk with the U.S. regarding the decision to revoke the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) treatment previously given to 573 Thai products.

The Thai Commercial Affairs office in Washington D.C. has been tasked with holding talks with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) tomorrow, to establish common practice during the 6-month period of grace prior to the proposed GSP cancellation, while the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok as a possible opportunity to hold discussions regarding the GSP will be reviewed for appropriateness, as discussions with the USTR would be the most direct route to solving the issue.

On labour concerns and Washington’s request to allow the migrant workers union’s establishment in Thailand, the Commerce Minister said today the Ministry of Labor is the responsible agency required to handle this question, and will have to weigh up what will affect the country more between allowing the migrant workers union to be set up, or losing the tax exemption scheme.

GSP cut to cost less than US$1.3bn

The United States recently announced the cancellation of Generalized System of Preferences benefits, which used to allow 573 items exported from Thailand to the US to be exempt of import duties.

The Ministry of Commerce yesterday announced that the lack of this duty-free status will cost less than 1.3 billion US dollars, with some time available to negotiate for reconsideration by the U.S. after the ASEAN Summit in early November.

The Ministry of Commerce’s Inspector General Keerati Rushchano, serving as acting director general for the Department of Foreign Trade (DFT), said the GSP cut is not immediately effective, allowing Thailand to pursue further negotiations with the U.S. to ask them to consider restoring the preferences. Thailand is hoping to hold talks on this matter after the ASEAN Summit in early November, and to hold negotiations based on the Thailand-U.S. trade and investment agreement.

He said all 573 items can still be exported to the U.S., however they will no longer enjoy special tax preferences.

The acting DFT chief admitted that one of the reasons for this cut is related to worker welfare, which is a separate topic from trafficking in humans, for which Thailand’s status has already improved to Tier 2 on the U.S. Department of State watchlist. The cut is, however, a result of complaints made by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) since 2013, adding that the DFT is aware that these complaints will be considered by the U.S. when…

Source link : Thailand to renegotiate GSP with US delegation at ASEAN Summit by National News Bureau of Thailand

Thailand’s ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 list has edged up 6 places, from 27th to 21st this year from 190 countries surveyed

The World Bank ranked Singapore second and Malaysia 12th in Doing Business 2020 report. In the ranking, Thailand’s scored increased 1.65 to 80.10, the highest in the past six years.

Thailand has done better in dealing with construction permits by cutting 19 procedures to 14 and waiting times for approval from 118 days to 113 days, climbing the rank to 34th from 67th, said the report.

Thailand’s Finance Minister, Uttama Savanayana, said Thailand has moved up six places among the 190 countries in the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business 2020” report.

Uttama added that protecting minority investors had been highlighted by the Thai government, pushing up the rank in this category to third place from 15th last year.

The finance minister however, said Thailand still needs to make progress in many areas to facilitate investments.

While many economies in the East Asia and the Pacific region make doing business relatively easy, the pace of reforms has slowed from previous years.

Reforms were implemented in fewer than half of its economies (12 out of 25). Even so, five East Asia and the Pacific economies are among the top 25 global performers, including Singapore(2^nd), Hong Kong SAR, China (3^rd); Malaysia (12^th); Taiwan, China (15^th); and Thailand (21^st). China jumped in the ranking to 31^st and is among the top 10 improvers for a second consecutive year.

A country’s ease of doing business score is reflected on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest and 100 represents the best performance.

Thailand saw a significant improvement in ranking in two indicators: dealing with construction permits, which ranked 34th with a score of 77.3, up from 67th with a score of 71.9 in 2019; and protecting minority investors, which ranked 3rd with a score of 86, up from 15th with a score of 86.

Best places to do business

The top 10 best places in the world to do business, according to the study, are New Zealand (with a score of 86.8 out of 100), Singapore (86.2), Hong Kong SAR, China (85.3), Denmark (85.3), the Republic of Korea (84), the United States (84), Georgia (83.7), the United Kingdom (83.5), Norway (82.6), and Sweden (82).

The post Thailand edges up 6 spots in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 appeared first on Thailand Business News.

Source link : Thailand edges up 6 spots in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 by Boris Sullivan

The 14th Senior Officials’ Meeting between the European Union and Thailand took place in Brussels on 16 October 2019

Sasiwat Wongsinsawat, director general of the Thai foreign ministry’s department of European affairs, held talks in Brussels on Wednesday with top EU officials in charge of Asia.

“The meeting noted substantial progress made by Thailand on important matters such as fight against illegal fishing (IUU), labour issues and the prevention of human trafficking,” stated the official press release from the UE

A long but productive day in Brussels yesterday. We covered a lot of discussions on how to enhance our engagement going forward. Look forward to following up after I return to Thailand on Friday!

Pirkka Tapiola, EU ambassador to Thailand

Trade between the EU and Thailand is valued at about 38 billion euros (US$42 billion) in 2018, according to the European Commission.

The EU is Thailand’s third largest export market, with 22.9 billion EUR worth of Thai goods and services being sold to the bloc, mainly machinery and transportation equipment.

Part of the effort included preparations to sign a Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA), towards closer economic and political ties with Thailand and resuming trade negotiations with the Southeast Asia’s second largest economy.

Free trade talks between Thailand and the EU started in 2013 but were put on hold by the EU after the 2014 military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra.

The EU decided to revive the trade talks after Thailand held a parliamentary election in March this year, and following the election of prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Asean as a whole represents the EU’s third-largest trading partner outside Europe, after the US and China, with more than €237.3 billion (US$263.9 billion) of trade in goods in 2018, according to latest available statistics.

According to an editorial published today by the SCMP, the resumption of talks comes as Thailand seeks to diversify its economy and reduce its reliance on China, which accounted for 14 per cent of the country’s total foreign direct investment in 2018.

But the official press release from the EU mentionned other topics like human rights issues, migration and environmental matters.

The post EU to revive free trade talks with Thailand appeared first on Thailand Business News.