Investors avoid Thailand; corruption increases costs by 30-35 pc
Thailand threatens to become the 'black hole' of Southeast Asia because doing business there is too expensive due to corruption. If the problem is not addressed, the country will collapse and future generations will suffer.
Surin Pitsuwan, former secretary general of the Southeast Asian Nations Organization and now president of the Future Innovation Thailand Institute, is sounding the alarm. The corruption problem has reached a crisis point and urgently needs to be addressed.
Thailand, which is Asean's largest economy after Indonesia, should be one of the top countries in the region to attract foreign investment, but the reality is different, he says. Between 2007 and last year, FDIs (foreign direct investment) in Asean rose by 30 percent, but in Thailand they fell by 27 percent (from $11,35 billion to $8,6 billion).
Surin estimates that the country has lost about $6 billion in investment over the past six years, mainly due to corruption, which makes investments 30 to 35 percent more expensive. And corruption costs the country 100 billion baht a year. That money could have been spent on many useful things.
According to Surin, the political party is one of the causes of corruption, the media neglects its watchdog function and the population is fine with it. In two recent polls by Dusit and Abac, 60 percent of respondents, including many young people, say they find corruption acceptable if it benefits them.
Thailand's competitiveness is being hit as corruption drains money from the budget, making it difficult for the country to develop its human capital. The so-called 'leakage' of the budget prevents people in education from being trained to be innovative and to develop an attitude that allows new products to be invented.
Thailand is one of the countries that spend the most on education, but the result is disappointing. The World Economic Forum says in one of its reports that the quality of higher education in Thailand is "abnormally low" compared to other Asean countries, Surin said.
Finally, Surin calls on the government to sign the Anti-Bribery Convention of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Ratification of that agreement provides a clear benchmark for determining how effectively the country is tackling corruption.
(Source: Bangkok Post, October 13, 2013. It is not clear from the article on which occasion Surin said this. The article is not in the form of an interview.)
I traveled to Thailand in October. I also stayed in Pattaya for 10 days, among other places. I have seen an example of the corruption carried out with the full cooperation of the police. What have I seen? On October 22, 2013 around 17 p.m. I was sitting in the 5 star bar having a pint with friends and saw that the police suddenly appeared. It was clear that something was going on with the jet ski rental companies. There was a discussion between 4 Thai men and 2 westerners and it was about the fact that there was supposedly damage to the jet ski they rented. There was a discussion on the beach for 45 minutes to an hour with the assistance of the police who clearly kept their distance until the rip-off of the tourists was completed. The discussion was monitored by 3 accomplices who monitored the other tourists together with the 2 police officers. After about an hour, the tourists left in anger after paying. The police then went to the landlords to collect their share of the loot, clearly hidden from the view of other people. When I wanted to take pictures, I was intimidated by the trio who forcefully asked me to stop taking pictures. The next day, October 23, 2013 at 17 p.m., the same incident. When the victims, 2 Italians, left, a friend of ours walked behind them and asked what had happened. These two men were very upset and said that they had caused no damage but were forced to pay 2 euros under pressure and with the cooperation of the police. They said they never wanted to come to Thailand again and that their trip was ruined.
What is also striking is the fact that only farangs are stopped at traffic controls and have to pay for the least (don't wear a helmet, no international driver's license, don't drive on the far left….) Thais are allowed to drive without a helmet and on the right, etc…
I just wanted to mention this so that people are warned: DO NOT RENT A JETSKI and make sure you are in order with the traffic regulations. As a farang you ALWAYS lose.
With that kind of nonsense you should always start shouting that you are going to call the tourist police. Often that is enough, those guys are not as corrupt as the normal police, that doesn't help just calling. tel no 1155 for all of thailand.
Always remain calm, do not provoke and say with a big smile.
wait for tourist police