The Council of State has finished vetting the Commerce Ministry’s draft regulations designed to remove these four types of business from the Annex III list of the Foreign Business Act (FBA) and the draft will soon be sent to the Cabinet.

The FBA obliges foreign investors wanting to own more than 50 per cent in business types in the Annex III list to seek approval from the FBA committee.

Pongpun Gearaviriyapun, director-general of the ministry’s Business Development Department, said after the new regulations take effect, foreign investors can directly apply for an operating licence from the authorities or regulators of these four businesses, such as the Bank of Thailand, or the Office of Insurance Commission.

Currently, they have to seek the FBA committee’s approval first and then approach the regulators.

“This will help improve ease of doing business in Thailand and make the country the centre of banking and insurance in Asean,” Pongpun said.

She said these businesses were set to be liberalised soon, as they are already strictly regulated by specific agencies and governed by a special set of laws and regulations. The move is expected to reduce duplication of procedures and save time for enterprises.

As of December 31, 2015, 11 foreign banks have got approval to do business under the FBA. They have a combined initial investment capital of Bt109.81 billion, while nine foreign bank representative offices, two foreign life-insurance firms, and six non-life insurance companies currently operate in the Kingdom under the FBA.

Under the department’s plan, more businesses related to banking and insurance and trading of agriculture products in the futures market listed in Annex III will also be considered for liberalisation in the future.

Meanwhile, the department has joined hands with leading modern traders Tesco Lotus to support sales of One Tambon One Product (OTOP) in a bid to help increase the income of farmers.

Rattana Theanvisitskool, deputy director-general to the department, said Thai OTOP would soon be available for online trading. Modern traders will help local enterprises in selecting products for trading.

Products that will be traded online are mostly food and essential goods, which will be selected from 2,700 OTOP Selects.

The department is also negotiating with Central Department Store, to help sell OTOP products on its website. To increase distribution channels for OTOP products, the department will also cooperate with the Tourism Ministry to establish the OTOP Village so that OTOP products can be bought by tourists.