Legal Section - Doing Business
You will find here a series of summaries providing an overview of useful legal regulations, processes and legal issues for Doing Business in Thailand.
Draft amendments to the Labour Protection Act
On 20 September 2018, the National Legislative Assembly (“NLA”) approved, in principle, draft amendments to the Labour Protection Act, 2541 B.E. (1998 A.D.) (“Draft Amendments”). Significant changes introduced by the Draft Amendments are summarized below.
The Draft Digital I.D. Act
Conducting business with governmental authorities and service providers, such as commercial banks and hospitals, currently requires someone to be physically present at the offices of those governmental authorities and service providers to verify their identity and signature, resulting in inconvenience and a delay in business transactions.
Investment incentives and measures in EEC
By virtue of the Investment Promotion Act, the Board of Investment (“BOI”) issued BOI Announcement No. 6/2018 dated 3 August 2018 offering higher tax privileges to private investors who conduct the business in the EEC area, which covers three provinces: Chachoengsao, Chonburi, and Rayong.
Digital work permits
Under the regulations announced on 20 July 2018, the Board of Investment ("BOI") has implemented a new system intended to replace the previous system and all paper documents for visa and work permit applications. The new electronic system, which was launched on 1 August 2018, allows companies receiving BOI incentives to apply for employee work permits and long-term visas online.
Registering a tourism business
For the past three years, the DBD has prohibited partnerships and limited companies from registering a tourism business in the business objectives, and also restricted them from using the words ‘tourism business’ in the entity’s name or wording which implied that the entity conducted a tourism business, unless the Department of Tourism had given the entity permission to conduct such a business.