What Can the Thai Government do to Improve Life of Foreigners

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Undaunted
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What Can the Thai Government do to Improve Life of Foreigners

Post by Undaunted »

"In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
fountainhall

Re: What Can the Thai Government do to Improve Life of Foreigners

Post by fountainhall »

That is an interesting 'to do' list. I entirely agree with the comments about the Tourism Authority of Thailand. It is nonsense that there is no separate Ministry when tourism accounts for 12% of GDP and employs approx. 9% of the population. Being staffed entirely by Thais is also ridiculous when the in-bound tourism market is the rest of the world - not Thais. When I did a consultancy for the Hong Kong Tourist Association in the late 1990s, there were foreigners not only working in the head office but heading several of the worldwide offices. Even then, the downturn in tourism over the next few years resulted in the government completely revamping its tourism policies, scrapping the HKTA and replacing it with a more professional body.

I would also add one essential item to the list. Get rid of corruption in government, government agencies, ministers and all civil servants. Corruption is the root of so many of this country's problems. It will never be completely rooted out, but whilst it is so regularly practiced idiotic policies like the new retirement visa requirements, the 90-day reporting and the TM30 reporting will continue to be touted as the answer to problems. The answer to most of these particular problems is perfectly simple. Get rid of the crook Immigration officers! Without them, there could not be crook agents and foreigners finding ways round the regulations.
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Re: What Can the Thai Government do to Improve Life of Foreigners

Post by Gaybutton »

I agree with everything in the article, and there is plenty more the article did not mention that could do with improvement. I've reached a point at which surrendering to TIT doesn't really work anymore when simple common sense is what really ought to be applied.

If I had to pick the portion of the article that most hits home for me, I would pick this part:
Make it easier to apply for, and maintain, visas

There are quite a few visas available for tourists and expats to come to Thailand . But the goal posts keep being shifted and the requirements continually change. Thinly-veiled corruption and variations of how the various visas are applied have made getting and maintaining a proper visa in Thailand challenging.

Tourist visas would also benefit from increasing possible length of stays and reducing paperwork before and upon arrival. There is currently a waiver of visa fees for some countries.

A long-term resident visa would also be welcome. Given the difficulty of getting a long-term resident visa in Thailand does little to attract real long-term retirees.

Immigration officials, around the country, control their own local fiefdoms where the ‘guidelines’ are just guidelines and are interpreted differently on different days by different officials. Apart from confusing the expats and tourists, these systems provide lucrative opportunities for blackmail and corruption.
The problem is Thailand's "Complaint Department" rarely shows much interest in what farang usually complain about . . .
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