Dear Members,

I hope you have all had an enjoyable Easter and Songkran break and are gradually drying out. I don’t know about you but the weather over the past few weeks caused me a few moments of thought about suitable attire for Songkran; thermal underwear or shorts and tee shirt!

We have now closed the Christchurch Earthquake Victims fund account and many thanks to those of you who contributed. The fund now stands at 365,000 Baht and will be distributed to the New Zealand Red Cross and the Canterbury Business Recovery Group which has been formed by the Canterbury Development Corporation and the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce.

The JFCCT has been quietly working on a number of visa and work permit related issues. Some progress has been made, albeit at a slower pace than we would all like. One recent success has been the reintroduction of the ability to obtain a re-entry permit at Suvarnabhum airport between 6am and midnight. You need to make sure you have passport photos at the ready as there are no facilities at the airport to get them there.

On 11 March there was a meeting on immigration and work permit issues between JFCCT and the Thailand Trade Representative (TTR), which included representatives from the Ministry of Labour and the Immigration Division. Some areas of interest came out of these discussions.

The Immigration Division has committed to allow 90 day reporting to be done online, however this is still in progress. It would be nice if it was eliminated altogether but since that is unlikely, online reporting will make life easier.

One problem that has been clear for some time is that guidelines and directives issued by the Ministry of Labour are not always publicised. There is also a disconnect at times between Ministry of Labour guidelines and the Immigration Division’s application of them which results in inconsistency and confusion. The Ministry did agree to make their guidelines relating to permissible exceptions to standard requirements for work permits publicly available and to keep Immigration informed. Hopefully this will encourage greater consistency across the two organisations but we shall have to wait and see how well this works.

Finally, a number of Permanent Residency issues were raised. Some of them are unlikely to happen such as the automatic right to work by holders of Permanent Residency holders but others are showing promise. The requirement for re-entry permits to be waived for holders of Permanent Residency is something that is already being reviewed by the Legal Department of the Immigration division but no timeframe for an outcome. The reintroduction of the Retirement Category has already been lodged with the Ministry of Interior.

Immigration informed JFCCT that responsibility for all alien registration issues is being transferred from Immigration to the Ministry of Interior. This also includes a project to allow for electronic registration. It will be interesting to see what this project brings and there are hopes that it might include ID Cards for Permanent Residency holders (to replace the existing red books). 

I will be in Kanchanaburi on Monday April 25th for ANZAC Day to attend the dawn service at Hellfire Pass and the Memorial Service and the Wreath Laying Ceremony at Kanchanaburi Allied War Cemetery. I look forward to seeing those of you who will be attending this.

This month our Corporate Knight will be on the 28th April at the Sheraton Grande and is sponsored by BRS; many thanks to Ellis Moate and his team. Ellis has been doing an excellent job of helping the Chamber develop a member survey, details of which will be sent out later. His very structured and professional approach has been invaluable and we can highly recommend him.

We look forward to seeing you all at the Sheraton on the 28th.


Kind regards,

Kindly sponsored by

   

Some recent Kiwi Snippets and Kiwis in the news:

This month we are including a copy of an email from Mike & Sue who live in Christchurch describing how  life is for them now some weeks after the earthquake struck. Christchurch seems to have disappeared from the world news (understandable given the events in Japan)  and we thought our members might be interested of a view of life "on the ground". Thanks to Mike and Sue for permission to publish this and we wish them well as the city recovers.

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From: Mike and Sue 
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2011 12:25 PM

Subject: Christchurch

Hi Everyone,

We now have safe water so no more boiling and we can brush our teeth without putting the toothbrush under the tap out of habit.

The sewerage situation is not good. Most streets have portaloos on the roadside and more vulnerable areas have been issued with 40,000 chemical toilets. We have been warned that the system is under such stress that there may be a catastrophic failure. The consequences of that don’t bear thinking about. We have lost 10,000 houses and 600 buildings in the central business district. 350 campervans have been set up in our showgrounds and a temporary village of 300 homes will be built in two city parks. The roads are very bumpy where liquefaction has forced the sealing upward but these are slowly being fixed. For two months, 16,000 trucks each week have been moving the silt from liquefaction. As a result some suburbs are lower and will be vulnerable to flooding in winter.

9000 school children moved away initially and 70 percent are still going to school elsewhere.

Christchurch has had to withdraw from hosting seven Rugby World Cup matches involving 160,000 tickets. The stadium dropped 70 cm and will cost $4 million to repair. Anyway, with the damage, the city could not accommodate and transport that many people. Violence on the sportsfield and on the sidelines has increased – an experience which also happened in Victoria after the floods and bush fires.

It is extraordinary how much good will towards Christchurch is generating gifts of money. The Red Cross has distributed $30 million to date. Did you see that Prince William has made donations to Christchurch an option for their wedding presents. My Rotary Club alone has received $30,000 including a gift from a Rotary Club in Siberia. We used part of this to make direct grants to our City Mission (the homeless and struggling) and Women’s Refuge (Domestic violence is up as a result of the stress caused by the quake trauma, loss of homes and loss of jobs). The rest we are holding as we know many needs have yet to be recognized.

On the brighter side, a national authority has been established to oversee the work, the CBD is slowly being opened up, people are returning to the city and businesses are starting up again.

We are getting back to normal, enjoying socializing with friends, my golf game is improving and Susan is right into her programme for breast cancer survivors. Meg is moving to another parish which pleases her.

Warm regards,

Mike and Susan

The February earthquake in Christchurch has reshaped the economic outlook, delaying the recovery by three to six months, according to the latest ASB Quarterly Economic Forecast.

ASB Chief Economist Nick Tuffley says that along with delaying rebuilding following last year’s earthquake in Christchurch, the February earthquake has caused substantial disruption to business activity, reduced confidence and is currently impacting tourism in the region.

“The February quake, like last September’s, hit at a time when the economy was struggling to retain the momentum of the initial rebound from recession,” he says. “The economy will take a considerable hit in the short term through the disruption to numerous Christchurch businesses. Some businesses will not reopen, shrinking the economy’s productive base.“

However, Mr Tuffley is positive on the outlook for 2012. “Key ingredients are in place for a gradual recovery in New Zealand’s underlying economic momentum.

“The second half of this year will start to show improvement, with the Rugby World Cup providing a large injection of tourist dollars around the country. Rebuilding Christchurch into a character-filled twenty first century city will also pour a huge amount of money into that region for years to come.”

Mr Tuffley says that conditions for commodity exporters are also positive. “The rural income story is very strong and will eventually filter through the economy. But in the short term, the income impact will remain diluted until farmers become comfortable with their debt levels and have a little more confidence to spend.

“Lower interest rates will help lift the national housing market out of its torpor. That, in turn, will assist in giving reason to increase construction in areas such as Auckland where population growth continues.

“Interest rates will remain low for much of the next year after March’s 0.5 percent cut in the OCR. Our best guess is the OCR will now not rise until March 2012. We expect the Reserve Bank will keep this cushioning in place until the economy is truly on the mend and reconstruction is firmly underway.”

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