Thai investors encouraged to join club

Thailand Privilege Card (TPC), issuer of the Thailand Elite Card, is planning to invite local rich people to join the club in order to stimulate more joint investment between Thai and foreign businessmen.

"The company will invite selected local investors and wealthy people to hold the privilege card so that they can meet up and discuss with foreign members about investment both within and outside the country," said Weerasak Kowsurat, the tourism and sports minister.

The company has revised its strategy and is approaching locals to apply for membership because that will help Thai investors to step into international markets.

"Now that some local companies have already been successful in global markets, many others are waiting for the same opportunity, so Thailand Elite Card will be part of encouraging this," he said.

The government is promoting the country as a good place for large projects such as water-sport complexes, cruise and marina facilities, theme parks and aquariums.

The state-owned firm was set up five years ago by the government of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra with the aim of attracting millionaires from around the world to become members the Thailand Elite club.

The company has been issuing the card exclusively to selected foreigners and now has more than 2,500 members from 60 countries, mostly from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Bangladesh, Singapore, Hong Kong, Russia, China and the Middle East.

Since opening, the company has been shaken and faced closure many times over investigations into internal management problems and objectives that seemed to favour foreigners.

Thailand Elite membership so far has fallen far short of initial projections.

As a result, the company has finally won approval for a broader policy, but needs to apply more strategies.

With a new management team, led by board chairman Sorajak Kasemsuvan, the company will now encourage local and international investment from Thai investors as they find the right partners.

TPC president Rapee Moungnont said the company planned to launch the programme this year. However, it will continue to approach potential new foreign members.

Rapee said the company is planning to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) in late June as part of its new strategy.

Many members of TCP and SET are in similar situations and they will soon get more privileges and opportunities for investment.

TPC is aiming for 800 new international members this year, but has approved only 12 so far. It believes it needs to add more overseas activities in the coming months to achieve its target.

Early this year the company increased the individual membership fee from Bt1 million to Bt1.5 million, and the cooperate membership fee from Bt2 million to Bt3 million.

The company also plans to add more overseas distribution partners to the existing three offices and expects to appoint new distribution partners in Beijing and Shanghai. It also intends to add more country partners to the existing 12 representatives.