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Us Banks Refuse To Cash Cheques For Thai Officials


Flashermac

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In the late 1980s the Thai port authorities set up some loading cranes and ordered all ships docking at Klong Toey to pay to use the government cranes. Ships were forbidden to use their on-board cranes. Besides running up costs of imports, it also caused delays. That caused quite a stink for a while. I wonder what ever became of it.

 

There are still all sorts of problems at Klong Toey. When they built Laem Chabang, the hope was that these problems would remain at Klong Toey. They didn't. For example, some shipping companies avoid Thailand altogether for rather routine certifications and go to Malaysia or even Cambodia instead. A de-ratting certificate is required (rat free) for many ships. In Thailand, you had (and presumably still have to) pay money under the table to get it. They don't even visit the ship for the "inspection". Officials just pocket the fee and issue the certificate. It's not a break the bank sum, but if your company has ties to the US, Germany, the UK (the first world), and word gets back about this under the table payment, the compliance department will go ape shit. People's reputations will be damaged and they could very lose their jobs. A criminal prosecution for violating the FCPA or the similar laws of Germany of any other European country is small (and by-the-way, Germany now has over 150 foreign corruption cases pending), but why risk your job on something like this? Compliance will have to demonstrate that they imposed real disciplinary measures. And so most figure: why risk it? Go to a port that does't have such a bad reputation.

 

These are little items, and just one of them by itself is probably no big deal, but in Thailand, the corruption is pervasive and ingrained, there is a hand out no matter where you turn. And so, many businesses just avoid the country altogether for certain activities. This costs good paying jobs. It also tarnishes Thailand's reputation. This also costs good paying jobs. This is one of the reasons, and there are others, why Thailand is caught in a middle income trap and cannot move up the ladder to a higher income country.

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...and this is good for you and me, isn't it?

 

Touche :hubbahubba:

 

Actually, I think its more complicated than that, but I am not going to go too far down that path other than to admit that I take (what some might call a perverse) delight in seeing Thai officials hoisted on their own petard when their ridiculous one-sided regulations and disregard of international obligations blow up in their face. But that's probably just me.

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Touche :hubbahubba:

 

Actually, I think its more complicated than that, but I am not going to go too far down that path other than to admit that I take (what some might call a perverse) delight in seeing Thai officials hoisted on their own petard when their ridiculous one-sided regulations and disregard of international obligations blow up in their face. But that's probably just me.

no no, others also enjoy that :)

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No, it is not.

 

Other wise you would be living in Las Vegas and not enjoying your privileged status in LOS.

 

No way I would be living in Las Vegas (and, say, not Sweden) and, yes, Thailand is more complicated than the clever sound bit above. It would be foolish to think otherwise. I suspect you have me confused with someone else. Nice try, though.

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No way I would be living in Las Vegas (and, say, not Sweden) and, yes, Thailand is more complicated than the clever sound bit above. It would be foolish to think otherwise. I suspect you have me confused with someone else. Nice try, though.

No, just pointing out that Horney was very right above. If LoS got its act together and became a 1st world state, it would be no different than living some place with a lot of glitz, prostitution, flat out rule by law.... and all of it very very expensive.

The part that has most of the ex-pats living in LoS currently is all of that, plus very cheap and this odd "white is right" attitude of the Thais.

 

 

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