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Ministry pressed to study easing List 3 rules
Bangkok Post – 21 January 2008
PHUSADEE ARUNMAS
The Commerce Ministry has asked the Finance Ministry to study the possibility of allowing more foreign investment in 12 businesses under List 3 of the Foreign Business Act.
The businesses under review include hotels, advertising, and plant cultivation and propagation.
Finance Ministry researchers have been asked to determine the impact and preparedness of Thai people for competition if greater foreign investment is allowed in the fields, said Kanissorn Navanugraha, director-general of the Business Development Department at the Commerce Ministry.
List 3 businesses are those in which Thai nationals are considered not yet ready to compete with foreigners. The 12 areas to be reviewed are brokerage or agent businesses; internal trade connected with native products or produce not yet prohibited by law; advertising, hotels, selling food and beverages, plant cultivation and propagation businesses, computer services, logistics and domestic transport, management business for company subsidiaries, pawnshops, schools and cinemas.
The study is expected to be finalised in August and submitted to the Foreign Business Board chaired by the permanent secretary for Commerce.
According to Mr Kanissorn, the department last year proposed 11 businesses under the List 3 for revision, but the Foreign Business Board disapproved and said it was necessary to continue protecting Thai nationals from foreign competition.
The exception was plant cultivation and propagation, which the board has approved on a case-by-case basis to promote Thai agricultural development.
Mr Kanissorn said the study was part of the department's responsibilities despite the fact that proposed FBA amendments failed to pass during the term of the military-installed government last year.
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