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Panupong Kritchanarat, originally from Bangkok, is currently the CEO of Boat Pattana, Phuket and has been working with its management for eight years. He also has several years of experience in real estate management. He holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University. Here, he talks about business options in Phuket and...

More and more people are choosing to buy properties in Phuket, Thailand. Phuket is one of Asia’s most sophisticated and most established property markets. Over the past twenty years, property developments have been sprouting around the island that heightened the influx of investors. Currently, the demand for properties is high, especially in newly developed areas of Surin, Bang Tao Beach, Layan, Cherng...

Tax exemptions and other incentives are set to spearhead Thailand’s efforts to boost foreign direct investment (FDI) in targeted areas of the economy. The initiatives form part of a broader range of incentives and reforms aimed at increasing capital inflows into Thailand, with a particular focus on tapping investment for planned industrial clusters in the eastern economic corridor (EEC) project, an...

The limited number of new luxury villas in Phuket has doubled the price of resale units, as demand is relatively strong in this niche market. Aliwassa Pathnadabutr, managing director of property consultant CB Richard Ellis (Thailand), said top-end villas on the island were part of an exclusive market characterised by a limited number of high-value transactions. Major players used to be small foreign...

An expanded product range aimed at broadening the client base alongside plans to target new markets are part of Thailand’s campaign to shore up its medical tourism industry, which is coming under pressure from increased competition and weaker economic performance in key source countries. In early September the Ministry of Public Health unveiled a new series of packages as part of the “Visit Thailand...

Amending the law to allow median prices based on current appraisal prices to be used for the local development tax could be an alternative to generate massive tax income instead of pushing the controversial land and buildings tax, says a source familiar with the subject. The strategy could help revenue from the local development tax surge by 100 times to 100 billion baht, said the source. The local...

An initiative driven by Thailand to develop closer financial integration and cooperation among Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries could bolster Bangkok’s position as a capital markets and banking centre. Thailand’s campaign to strengthen fiscal and economic ties with its near neighbours reached a new level in June, with the hosting of a two-day summit for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and...

One thing that I love about Phuket is the ability for luxury to live side by side with abject casualness. You could be sitting next to a multi-millionaire or a packaged tourist on the bar stool, as the ties that bind are the flip-flops adorning your respective feet. Islands tend to have little social stratification, which can probably be explained in a Robinson Crusoe round-about manner. Be it a local...

A stronger-than-expected performance in the first quarter has prompted analysts to revise their year-end growth forecasts for the Thai economy, though some remained cautious in the face of ongoing challenges both at home and abroad. Data issued in May by Thailand’s National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) put year-on-year (y-o-y) growth for the first quarter of 2016 at 3.2%, the...