I have great pleasure in welcoming our new New Zealand Ambassador Tony Lynch and his wife Julie-Anne Lee to Bangkok. They are both busy with language and cultural training at present but are taking some time out to attend our special Corporate Knight on Thursday 28th June during which we will be giving them a proper Kiwi welcome.

In July the New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Murray McCully, will be visiting Bangkok for meetings with his Thai counterparts. We will be holding a reception for him on the evening of Monday 16th July during which he will be giving a briefing which may cover areas such as:

• Status of links with Thailand
• New Zealand governments re-evaluation of policy towards Asia
•  ASEAN

This is a rare opportunity for us to meet government ministers here in Bangkok and I understand Mr. McCully is eager to meet local expat New Zealanders. The details of the reception are still being finalised but I encourage you to pencil in the 16th July in your diaries

We are currently evaluating the results of the members’ survey and we will be reporting on this shortly. I can say, however, that the overall results were very positive and we have received some much valued feedback and ideas which we really appreciate. We always strive to improve our services and benefits to our members and the results of this survey will form the core of future planning. Of course you don’t need to wait for a survey to offer suggestions; we are always receptive to your feedback.

We continue to see many articles related to AEC in the media. Most of these remain linked with marketing and promotion and have very little to do with any changes brought about by AEC. A book recently launched discussing AEC noted that there is still little knowledge within Thailand about AEC and FTA, and even less on how to take advantage of them.

Many people have asked how well Thailand’s progress stacks up against other AEC countries. That is a difficult question to answer since the AEC Scorecard concept which is designed to measure each governments progress towards change has some limitations. The AEC scorecard only measures the progress of ‘implementation’ against the economy’s commitment and these are usually very low targets. The scorecard is merely a compliance tool and doesn’t show actual impact. It is generally used as an indicator of progress against the 2015 objectives but it is ‘grossly misleading’.

The JFCCT is in the process of developing a policy position on AEC with the emphasis on:

• The benefits of improved living standards, employment opportunities and access to lower priced higher quality goods for the average Thai citizen.
• Opportunities for Thai companies to take advantage of access to bigger markets.
• How JFCCT members can bring their knowledge and experience to help Thai companies do this.

This is an important subject for all of us and we will continue to keep you abreast of new developments.

As previously mentioned, we will be holding a special welcome for our new Ambassador and his wife at this month’s Corporate Knight which will be held at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit. Please come along and give a warm welcome to Ambassador Tony Lynch and his wife Julie-Anne Lee.

Many thanks to Zespri International who will be sponsoring this event and to Snappe NZ, the Sheraton Grande, NZ Natural, Fonterra and  Royal Prestaige Wines who will be providing some great New Zealand food and wine.

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