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Archived Articles  Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian descent, and former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with the hot political and economic topics, both Bulgarian and international. ("A Royal Solution." World Press Review. June 1997, provides English versions). He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in the country, and in 1996-1997 participated in the international monitors' teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria. In 1999 he was among the few Bulgarian journalists that supported NATO military operation against Yugoslavia. In 2002 Simeon and his family emigrated from Bulgaria to Canada where they now live in Montreal, Quebec.
Global Real Estate Project
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Thailand: Red carpet for foreign investorsThe central bank of Thailand lifted the remaining restrictions on the foreign capitals, which were imposed by the military junta that took power in 2006. Until now, the foreign investors had to make a non-reimbursable reserve deposit of some 30 percent of the investment during the first 12 months. When imposed at the very late of the 2006, this drastic measure was intended to keep under control the value of the national currency, the bath, considered vulnerable and under the strong upward pressure coming from some irresponsible foreign speculative investors. Just to remind that when imposed, these restrictions led to a sudden downturn of the local stock exchange. Also to be reminded, a situation in history when speculative investors suddenly withdrew their money, led to a depreciation of the bath in 1997, which triggered the famous Asian financial crisis. If there were some risks of higher than usual and higher than normal speculative financial activity in Thailand, they had been largely exaggerated. Actually, the raw numbers show that the country is anything but assaulted as a special case by foreign investors. For the last years alone, among the other Southeast Asia nations, Thailand attracted about $10 billion, or approximately $150 per capita, not quite sufficient in order to uplift the country among the richest nations. Just to put it in comparison with other nations of the region, Singapore attracted almost 4 times more direct investments, or almost $10,000 per capita. A still communist Vietnam, a country that would suit more as a reference given the size of the population, attracted $12 billion direct investments. There is another reason why Thailand shouldn't be particularly worry about sudden foreign capitals' withdrawal; the capitals weren't coming in the first place due to higher risks that plagued some emerging markets, Thailand being one of them. In a sense, by doing a military coup in 2006, the junta had put the country in the group of countries with higher political risks, all other factors being equal. This had produced an effect of warning for any potential foreign investor. As the argument goes, Thailand had become a worse place for investment because of the coup, and therefore the new government after the coup didn't need to make it even more inhospitable for investors by imposing some additional administrative restrictions. In the light of this, lifting all of the remaining restrictions is certainly a step so much financially logical as politically expected.
Thailand country profile: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Thailand.
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