Chairman’s Message
D Simon Landy Corporate Partners
r Sumet Jumsai, the renowned architect and man of letters, gave a fascinating talk recently at the Thai Embassy in London on the history of the British-Thai relationship. Celebrating 400 years of Anglo-Thai relations (from the 1612 letter from King James 1 to the King of Siam), Dr Sumet recounted the turbulent story of the first Siamese embassy to England in 1684. While the English showed their valiant side when the Royal Navy rescued the embassy from an attack by Barbary pirates in the English Channel, the ambassadors experienced another aspect of English hospitality on reaching Margate when customs officials seized the royal gifts from King Narai to King Charles II and King Louis XIV of France. Customs refused to release the cargo even after a direct appeal from King Charles, insisting on a ruling from Parliament. Once that was arranged and the gifts released, the Siamese ambassadors were swiftly escorted to the nearest pub for a pint! These days, UK-Thai relations usually take on the more positive characteristics shown by this incident: steadfast support and friendly bonhomie, although certainly an occasional dose of bureaucratic perversity can sometimes muddy this picture. Nevertheless, the relationship is unquestionably moving from strength to strength, as demonstrated during Prime Minister Yingluck’s visit to the UK last November when the two countries agreed to set up a strategic dialogue that will require regular meetings at the highest levels of government. These moves are in line with growing trade and investment relations between our countries. In particular, Thai interest in investing in the UK is on an upward trajectory. The sharp decline in the value of the pound may have accelerated this trend, but there are many long-term investments in many areas of the UK economy, from steel manufacturing to breweries and from food processing to football clubs. However, it’s fair to say that UK businesses have been on the whole less aware of opportunities in Thailand than their counterparts in Thailand have been of those in the UK. Of course, there are major exceptions to this, as can be seen in our diverse and successful chamber membership, from retailing to oil & gas, from business services to fast-moving consumer goods, from education to manufacturing. Nevertheless, there is a tendency for the UK to see Thailand primarily as an exotic holiday destination rather than the competitive production and consumption market that it has become.
Annual Airline Partners
Supporting Partners
As Europe’s problems continue to defy an easy solution, the traditional reliance of British business on the EU has become a major concern for the British government. One consequence of this is that chambers like ours have moved from the periphery to the centre of attention for the business end of the government. Hence the UK government’s development of the new chambers of commerce which will see major Britchams, including BCCT, taking on some of the services to British businesses traditionally offered by the UKTI and expanding them, as detailed more fully by Greg Watkins in his message in this edition of The Brief. The main reason why this programme is of interest to BCCT is that it offers us a chance to both strengthen our membership base with a string of new businesses operating in Thailand, but more importantly to deepen our service provision to existing members. As Greg explains, the business plan calls for a gradual increase in the range of services made available by the chamber and a commensurate increase in the level of staffing to support this. The costs will initially be subsidised by the UK government, but the plan envisages that the new services will eventually pay for themselves without dipping into the chamber’s financial resources. A key tenet for BCCT is that the costs of the new services are ring-fenced from the existing operations. Our intention is that the new services will neither place an extra burden on current staff nor a financial burden on current members. Our business plan is based on the goal of providing more benefits to membership and more services for members. If this is not the case, we will not move forward. We look forward to gradually rolling out a programme that will in due course see BCCT as a more highly developed centre for businesses both new to Thailand and that have long been operating here. With these new services, we hope to see BCCT play a more prominent role in Anglo-Thai relations, continuing the positive traits of a relationship that stretches back some 400 years. The Brief
Issue 2/2013
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