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Starting A Business in Thailand.
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In order to set up a limited company in Thailand, the following procedures should be followed:

1. Reservation of your Corporate Name
The name to be reserved must not be the same or similar to the name of any other companies. There are names that are not allowed and the name reservation guidelines of the Commercial Registration Department in the Ministry of Commerce need to be observed. The approved corporate name is valid for 30 days. No extension is allowed.

2. File a Memorandum of Association
A Memorandum of Association must be filed with the Commercial Registration Department. This has to include the name of the company that has been successfully reserved, its business objectives, the capital to be registered, the province where the company will be located, and the names of the seven promoters. The capital information must include the number of shares and the value per share. At the time of formation, the authorized capital, although partly paid, must all be issued. Although there are no minimum capital requirements, the amount of the capital should be of a respectable amount, and adequate for the business operation to function healthily. The Memorandum registration fee is 50 baht for every 100,000 baht of registered capital. The minimum fee is 500 baht, and the maximum is 25,000 baht.

3. Convene a Statutory Meeting
Once the share structure has been decided, a statutory meeting needs to be called, during which the bylaws and articles of incorporation are approved, the Board of Directors are nominated and an auditor selected. A minimum of 25% of the value of each subscribed share must be paid.

4. Registration
Within three months of the date of the Statutory Meeting, the directors must submit their application to establish the company.

5. Tax Registration
Within 60 days of incorporation, or within 60 days of the start of operations, businesses liable for income tax must obtain a tax identity card and a number for the company from the Revenue Department. Business operators earning more than 1,800,000 baht per annum must register for VAT within 30 days of the date they reach that figure in sales.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

Companies must keep accurate books and follow the accounting procedures which are specified in the Accounts Act, the Civil and Commercial Code and the Revenue Code. Documents may be prepared in any language, provided that a Thai translation is attached. All accounting entries should be typewritten, printed or written in ink. Specifically, Section 1206 of the Civil and Commercial Code provides rules on the accounts that should be maintained as follows: "The directors must cause true accounts to be kept: Of the sums received and expended by the company and of the matters in respect of which each receipt or expenditure takes place. Of the assets and liabilities of the company."

1. Imposition of Taxes
Companies are required to withhold income tax from the salary of all regular employees. Value Added Tax of seven per cent is levied on the value added at each stage of the production process, and is applicable to most firms. This VAT must be paid every month. A specific business tax is levied on companies that engage in several categories of businesses that are not subject to VAT. This tax is based on gross receipts, at a variable rate ranging from 0.1 % to 3.0 %. Corporate income tax is 30 % of net profits and is due twice each economic year. A mid-year profit forecast entails advance payment of these corporate taxes.

2. Annual Accounts
A newly-established company or partnership should close accounts within 12 months of the date of registration. Thereafter, these accounts should be closed every 12 months. The performance record has to be certified by the company auditor, approved by the shareholders, and filed with the Commercial Registration Department, at the Ministry of Commerce, within five months of the end of the financial year, and with the Revenue Department, at the Ministry of Finance, within 150 days of the end of the financial year. If a company wishes to change its accounting period, it must obtain written approval from the Director General of the Revenue Department.

3. Accounting Principles
Broadly speaking, accounting principles practised in the United States are acceptable in Thailand , as are accounting methods and conventions as sanctioned by law. The Institute of Certified Accountants and Auditors of Thailand is the authoritative group promoting the application of generally accepted accounting principles. Any accounting method that a firm chooses to adopt must be used consistently, and may be changed only with approval of the Revenue Department.

Certain accounting practices of note include:

Depreciation
The Revenue Code permits the use of varying depreciation rates according to the nature of the classes of assets which have the effect of depreciating the assets over periods that may be shorter than their estimated useful lives. These maximum depreciation rates are not mandatory; a company may use lower rates that approximate the estimated useful lives of the assets. But if a lower rate is used in the books of the accounts, the same rate must be used in the income tax return.

Accounting for Pension Plans
Contributions to a pension or provident fund are not deductible for tax purposes unless these are actually paid out to the employees, or the fund is approved as a qualified fund by the Revenue Department and is managed by a licensed fund manager.

Consolidation
Local companies with either foreign or local subsidiaries are not required to consolidate their financial statements for tax and other government reporting purposes, except for listed companies which must submit consolidated financial statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand.

Statutory Reserve
A statutory reserve of at least five percent of the annual net profits arising from the business must be appropriated by the company at each distribution of dividends until the reserve reaches at least 10 % of the company's authorized capital.

Stock Dividends
Stock dividends are taxable as ordinary dividends and may be declared only if there is an approved increase in authorized capital. The law requires the authorized capital to be subscribed in full by the shareholders.

4/ Auditing Requirements and Standards
Audited financial statements of juristic entities (that is, a limited company, a registered partnership, a branch, or representative office, or a regional office of a foreign corporation, or a joint venture) must be certified by an authorised auditor, and submitted to the Revenue Department and (except for joint ventures) to the Commercial Registrar for each accounting year.

mported corn-based ethanol from the US could help ease ethanol prices in Brazil that have been rising because of increasing demand and heavy rains that have delayed the sugarcane harvest, Julio Maria Borges, a director at sugar and ethanol industry consultancy Job Economia e Planejamento, told BNamericas.

"Importing ethanol from the US makes sense from the commercial point of view as the American corn-based ethanol, at the moment, is US$300/m3 cheaper than ethanol produced from Brazilian sugarcane," Borges said.

Ethanol prices in Brazil have risen 20% in the last five months, according to state news agency Agência Brasil, and some consumers in Brazil are already starting to turn to cheaper gasoline.

The Brazilian government, meanwhile, is currently considering importing ethanol from the US to supply the domestic market, a source at Brazil's mines and energy ministry told BNamericas.

"The government is trying to find an internal solution for this situation, but importing ethanol from the US is on the table," the source said.

Brazilian sugarcane and ethanol industry association Unica has already asked the government to scrap the 20% tariff imposed on imported ethanol.

Brazil should set an example for the world by removing tariffs in order to stimulate other countries to do the same, the association said in a statement.

Importers, however, could still face some risk as the upcoming harvest and increased use of gasoline will put some pressure on local ethanol prices.

"It is a risk for the importer to ship ethanol from the US now, in a moment when prices will probably begin to fall because of lower demand and the start of a promising harvest year in March," Borges added.

Brazil's government has already been trying to address the situation and last week announced that gasoline will contain 20% ethanol from February 1 as opposed to the current 25% admixture rate.

The reduction will be valid for 90 days, after which the rate will be increased back to 25%.

La Metula News Agency, souvent identifiée par l'acronyme Ména, ou Mena^[1], est une petite agence de presse israélienne francophone^[2],[3],[4], quoique cette qualification soit contestée par d'autres sources^{[5],[6],[7],[8]}. Elle a été créée par Stéphane Juffa en mai 2001^[6]. La rédaction est située dans le village israélien de Metula — qui lui donne son nom — à la frontière libanaise.

Sommaire [masquer] 1 Fonctionnement 2 Controverses 3 Annexes 3.1 Notes et références 3.2 Articles connexes

Fonctionnement

La Ména publie des articles en français^[9]. La société Metula News Agency S.A. est enregistrée aux îles Vierges britanniques^[6]. Les assemblées générales sont tenues à Metula en Israël^[10], où est également située la rédaction^[11].

La Ména affirme employer des journalistes français, un journaliste égyptien et un analyste américain ainsi que des correspondants dans divers pays et territoires arabes (Liban, Jordanie et Palestine). Son rédacteur en chef est le journaliste et commentateur Stéphane Juffa. Elle compte parmi ses collaborateurs l'essayiste et universitaire Guy Millière. Luc Rosenzweig (ancien journaliste de Libération et ancien rédacteur en chef du Monde) en fut un collaborateur^[12].

Cette agence, qui couvre essentiellement les événements du Proche-Orient et du Moyen-Orient, s'est fait connaître à propos de l'affaire Mohammed al-Durah, dont elle a fourni une part des matériaux et points de vue utilisés contre le reportage de France 2. Elle a également abordé, entre autres, la guerre du Liban de l'été 2006.

Controverses

La Metula News Agency, à la suite de la publication des conclusions de son enquête sur l’affaire Mohammed al-Durah, faisant l'objet de plus d'une centaine d'articles et éditoriaux de sa part, est au centre d'une controverse qui l'oppose au journaliste franco-israélien Charles Enderlin et à la chaîne de télévision du service public France 2. Selon la Ména, cette affaire procède d'une mise en scène et les thèses de l'agence sont reproduites dans un livre de Gérard Huber, à l'époque son correspondant à Paris, intitulé « Contre expertise d'une mise en scène ».

Selon H. Deguine de la revue Médias^[6], la Ména s'est fait connaître à propos de l'affaire Mohammed al-Durah, affaire qui aurait "assuré le véritable lancement de l'agence". Les articles de la Ména sont considérés comme une « campagne de diffamation » par Bénédicte Amblard, avocate de Charles Enderlin^[13].

Pour Dominique Vidal, journaliste au Monde diplomatique, la Ména « excelle dans la dénonciation de journalistes^[14] ». Il mentionne, en plus des attaques contre Charles Enderlin, des attaques de la Ména contre Alexandra Schwartzbrod du journal Libération. ^[15]. Dans le même ordre d'idées, Daniel Psenny, journaliste du quotidien Le Monde, estime, dans un article paru en novembre 2004, que la Ména est un site militant et précise que celle-ci, plusieurs années auparavant, aurait qualifié l'AFP d’« Agence France Palestine^[16] ».

Da Nang narrowly tops Binh Duong in 2008 Vietnam
Provincial Competitiveness Index

The Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) is a survey of the business climate in the nation’s 64 provinces and cities in Vietnam. The PCI is widely viewed as a critical tool for measuring and assessing the standards of economic governance from the perspective of private sector businesses. Year 2008 marks the fourth iteration of the PCI analysis.

The Provincial Competitiveness Index 2008 is the result of a major, ongoing collaborative effort between the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the U.S.Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI), managed by DAI, with a substantial contribution by VNCI partner The Asia Foundation (TAF). The report was based on a survey of 7,820 private domestic enterprises on a number of indices relating to business or investment climate. The rated factors are those that can be directly influenced by the actions and attitudes of provincial authorities and include entry costs, proactivity of local leadership, labour training, transparency and access to information, state-sector bias, private sector development services, land access, security of business premises, legal institutions, informal charges and time spent on regulatory compliance. In 2008, the Vietnam News reported on the 12 of December that on a 100-point scale, Da Nang earned 72.18 points, followed by Binh Duong with 71.76 points, allowing the central region city to surpass the southern province of Binh Duong which topped the survey in its first three years but dropped to second place in 2008.

In Business-in-Asia close analysis of this years report, we found the following:

1.) Both provinces, Da Nang and Binh Duong, top the Excellent tier and their final scores (72.18 and 71.76) differ by less than half a point. Binh Duong, the PCI champion for the past three years, lost its crown to Da Nang, which had ranked second in all previous iterations. Da Nang is to be applauded for this but Binh Duong and Da Nang both remain top places to invest in Vietnam in 2008.

2.) Da Nang actually showed a decline from last year in some indices, including private development services, informal charges and time spent on regulatory compliance, land access and security of business premises. However, its advantage in Port and Airports helped in its overall Standard Infrastructure score.




Indicators Used In Infrastructure Index are:



3.) Binh Duong is still the strongest in the Infrastructure Index; however, when comparing ports and airports and seaports access, it lost to Da Nang because it is an interior province with no provincial seaport and with no airport since it relies on Ho Chi Minh City international airport which is about a 45 minute drive away. A further fact to note here in comparing airports is that Danang airport is largely an internal airport with few international flights while Ho Chi Minh City International Airport is the country's largest and has the most flights to neighboring regions. Binh Duong remains top of the Index on Proactivity (which covers issue such as are the provincial officials knowledgeable enough about present national law to find opportunities within existing law to solve firm problems, and so on). Binh Duong was judged weaker than DaNang on its website, which made its score lower in the Transparency Index than DaNang, and on the ICT Readiness Index, Binh Duong lost out to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi but still exceeded DaNang.


3.) The two major economic hubs, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, were also in a lower positions in Year 2008 PCI, with Ho Chi Minh City, at 60.15 points, falling from 10th in 2007 to 13th place; and the capital city of Hanoi, at 53.74 points, dropping from 27th to 31st.

Over the past years, more than 40 provinces and state agencies in Vietnam have used the PCI to engage in public-private dialogue and analysis with local communities to better understand the competitive factors that drive economic growth. The report helps direct provinces and cities towards their areas of greatest weakness, encouraging them to make necessary reforms to facilitate businesses rather than ranking provinces and cities in high or low positions. Furthermore, investors use the index as a basis for their decisions about the location of new business ventures.

Who Answers the PCI Survey? (Composition of the 7820 Total Respondents)


Despite the stability in PCI rankings over time, 2008 scores were generally lower across every level, with the score of the median province in the survey falling from 55.6 in 2007 to 53.2 in 2008, indicated in the PCI report summary. While most PCI sub-indices experienced moderate increases, two sub-indices, Labor and Private Sector Development showed dramatic declines. Because of the high weights of these indices, the declines affected the overall PCI scores significantly. The PCI report indicated that the causes of the lower scores are predominantly due to either: 1) evidence of actual deterioration in public service delivery, or 2) increasing expectations by firms that have not been met by proportionate improvements in the quality of government services. Vietnam's macroeconomic instability in 2008, also had a measurable influence on firms' perceptions.

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