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Government withdraws Foreign Business Bill |
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Thursday, 09 August 2007 |
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The government has withdrawn Wednesday the controversial Foreign Business
Bill from the final stretch of the law-making process to incorporate more
amendments suggested by law-makers.
The National Legislative Assembly, the law-making body, met for the third
reading of the draft. Following objections from the minority wing, Commerce
Minister Krirkkrai Jirapaet decided to withdraw the bill from the process in
order to prevent it from being killed.
A group of NLA members proposed amendments to the definition of “foreign” voting
rights and control. These last two issues, they argued, were more important
substantively in determining whether a company was “foreign.”
Somchai Sakulsurarat, an NLA member, who opposed the version of the bill being
debated on Wednesday argued that it should address the management control issue
in line with recommendations by the Council of State.
“I disagreed with claims that having tight definition of management control
would undermine foreign investor’s confidence. We are trying to avoid recurrence
of such charade as the Kularbkaew case,” he said, referring to the proxy company
set up to facilitate share transactions between Shin Corporation and Singapore’s
Temasek Holdings.
He said the draft proposed by the government would fail to close such gaps as
foreign entities could come up with many other ways to exercise management
control.
Mr Somchai was adamant that the definition of “foreigner” he wanted to see would
not deter “honest foreign investors” who chose to do business in Thailand for
good reasons.
After the majority of the NLA voted 76 to 64 for amendments, Commerce Minister
Krikkrai withdrew the bill for improvement. The NLA thereafter voted for the
bill to be returned for further reading after amendment. (TNA)
source: Bkk Post/breaking news
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