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OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Our president is on his well de-served holidays in Switzerland and I am happy to fill-in with this issue of the STCC newslet-ter. When you ask 100 people to name some typical charac-teristics of Switzerland or Swiss people, they would mention conservative, reliable, hard-working, punctual, wealthy.
However, you would be sur-prised that Switzerland is also in the top slot on the Global Innovation Index in 2012, ahead of Singapore, Sweden, UK and, believe it or not, the USA. At the latest STCC lun-
cheon talk on September 11, titled “high tech innovation applied in Thailand”, Peter Sprenger walked us through real live examples on how inno-vation and technology can im-prove our living standards and environment. I was amazed to see a pilot project in Switzer-land with foldable solar power roof panels, which could be installed over your parking lot, your vegetable garden or even your swimming pool. This means when the weather is nice you roll it out and when you expect heavy rain and hail - you roll it in.
If you install a 2 kilowatt sys-tem for 250,000 baht at the rooftop of your home, it might well take you 30 to 40 years for a payback on this invest-ment, if you generate say 6 kWh a day on average at the current tariff of roughly 5 baht. In my rough non-scientific ex-ample this would feed your re-frigerator, your lights, your TV and your personal gadgets, but would not be enough to feed
DEAR FRIENDS AND MEMBERS OF THE STCC
BRUNO ODERMATT
SUPPORTED BY
STCC CALENDARThursday, 10th Oct 2013Stamm at AMARI Boulevard Hotel, Sukhumvit
Tuesday, 15th Oct 2013Swiss Society Bangkok SSB Hoeck 18:00 in Grottino Res-taurant
Thursday, 14th Nov 2013Stamm, AMARI Boulevard Hotel, Sukhumvit
More details for above events please wait for the invitation-mail or get it from www.swis-sthai.com, click on “events”.
SERVICE
01
TOP NEWSDeutsche Bank: A Sobering SummerImmigration: New Rules for Visa ExtensionsSwiss Embassy: New Rules for Schengen VisaJFCCT: New BOI Strategy 2015Swiss School: Swiss Author in Bangkok
OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
you air-conditioning or your dishwasher, which consume lots of energy. At present the feed-in tariff for solar rooftops is approx. 7 baht per kWh, so your payback might be lower if you sell your excess power to the government. At present, half of the total solar rooftop capacity is bought from the residential sector and the rest from factories and commercial buildings
In any way you look at this in-vestment, it is really not that attractive. But this is not just about money. Producing elec-tricity creates lots of head-aches, think of water dams in environmentally sensitive ar-eas, polluting coal plants and worries with reliability of nu-clear plants and not even talk-ing about on how we can safely depose of nuclear waste. Solar has only one problem, and this is cost. After the enlighten-ing luncheon talk I got more convinced that you can think of solar as a personal choice to make a contribution to the public wellbeing.
The more people and busi-nesses invest in it, the further research will continue and im-prove technology and will fi-nally lower the cost. Perhaps it is still too expensive for house-holds to buy into solar energy today, but if businesses, civic and private organizations are engaged in it, then this could
make a difference, especially in such a place as Thailand where sun is of abundance. If you look at a city like Bangkok, it is really not that smart to burn fossil fuels and heat up all the concrete just to keep your place cool. The key is that people need to invest and buy into it. There are many ways to make money on smart business investments, but if you invest in solar energy, you can really make a difference. For my part I will take a serious look at my rooftop terrace and one day I might generate my own power.
I am always amazed to see what talent and skills we have amongst our members and would encourage you to use the STCC business luncheons as a platform if you have anoth-er innovative idea or business model to share.
I wish you the very best of suc-cess in your business and am looking forward to seeing you at our next business luncheon.
I wish you all best of success in your business!
Bruno Odermatt
Contact the President:Luzi A. Matzig(Lersan Misitsakul)President [email protected]. +66 (0) 2626 2121
SUPPORTED BY
MEMBER DETAIL UPDATESDo you have changes among your delegates or changes to your e-mail, mobile, telephone, or fax numbers? Please send all updates to [email protected]
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OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
ECONOMY REPORT BY DEUTSCHE BANK
03
• Economic outlook: Economic growth has slowed but should pick up again as exports and tourism sector activities regain strength in the remainder of the year. Inflation has likely bot-tomed, but will remain muted for the time being.
• Main risks: Exports could dis-appoint if US and EU recoveries turn out to be uneven. Private consumption could be held back if drag from the expiration of the one-off supportive measures turn out to be bigger than ex-pected.
It has been a challenging sum-mer for Thailand, which puts it in the same category as many other EM economies, but the fact that Thailand was one of the darlings of investors at the beginning of the year makes the recent fall from grace parti-
cularly glaring. Unlike the acu-tely afflicted EM economies this year, the Thai economy is not in the middle of a sharp currency correction or sizeable twin de-ficits, its banks and corporates are not under stress, labor mar-ket conditions are strong, and inflation is benign. Still, there is a palpable sense of loss of momentum, marked by a rise in political tension, weakness in trade, some slowdown in con-sumption, and weakness in as-set markets. After a stellar run for over a year, the Thai econo-my is taking a breather, but we continue to believe that going forward, further strength, not weakness, would mark the Thai economy as it closes 2013 and steps into 2014.
What are the reasons behind expectations that better days are ahead? First, we see no
major fundamental misalign-ments in the economy. The is-sues that have soured investor sentiment lately are not insur-mountable, in our view. The authorities have stumbled with their ambitious plans to spend THB2.3trln over 5/6 years to boost infrastructure, especially in the areas of train and river transportation. We consider the fact that more environmental sustainability studies are being required and project tender and procurement matters are under scrutiny as positive develop-ments. While delays are unfor-tunate, and perhaps could have been avoided if the government had engaged the civil society pro-actively and ensured more transparency in project plan-ning, we continue to believe that delays do not mean can-cellation. After all, there is a broad based consensus in the
A SOBERING SUMMER
OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
04
economy that only through greater investment in-itiatives and steps to boost productivity can Thai-land continue to prosper. If the projects turn out to be more broadly owned by the society and en-vironmentally sound, the delays will be justified.
Secondly, the summer’s equity and bond market selloff has been a healthy development, in our view. Overheating (especially with respect to con-sumption and bank borrowing) and asset markets reaching frothy territory were developments that were clearly making the authorities uncomfortable in the first half of this year, as reflected in the various prudential measures implemented by the BoT. At the same time, policy was complicated by a sharply rising baht, causing fears about loss of competitiveness, causing the BoT to cut rates. The summer’s developments have left the Thai economy more balanced, in our view, with growth becoming more manageable and asset markets less exuberant.
Third, one of the reasons the Thai economy was lumped together with other deficit economies du-ring the sell-off was the fact that its current ac-count was seen to be deteriorating sharply (from 5.1% of GDP surplus in Q111 and about a 5% of GDP deficit in Q213). Exports weakened, imports remained sticky, and outflows accelerated, with the deterioration manifesting in baht depreciati-on and worsening of investor concerns. Looking ahead, we expect Thailand to continue to run a current account deficit, but with a considerably more manageable magnitude. Helped by a likely pick up in exports, tourism, and reduction in di-vidend outflows, we see no more than 1% of GDP deficit ahead, which ought to be readily financed.
This is not to say the economy is devoid of risks. Growth is unlikely to rise substantially unless in-vestment picks up, and the economy will struggle for the time being as various one-off consumpti-on related support measures dissipate. Household debt is high (75% of GDP), and a rising interest environment will pose challenge to debt service
ECONOMY REPORT BY DEUTSCHE BANK
OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
05
Chiang Mai Sunrise
and further leveraged con-sumption ahead. Politics has clearly become more intense in recent months, and further confrontations can’t be ruled out. Despite these risks, we think that economy-wise, the reminder of 2013 will see some decline in headwinds and a re-assertion of Thailand’s funda-mentals.
In light of recent developments, we have revised a range of fore-casts (details in the attached table). We are less optimistic with the growth and balance of payments outlook, and we have also changed the projected path of inflation and exchange rate. Policy implications are however unchanged. BoT is unlikely to alter its monetary policy stance
as FX weakness has neutralized the soft inflation outturn so far. We see no major change in the fiscal stance either.
Taimur Baig, Singapore, +65 6423 8681
ECONOMY REPORT BY DEUTSCHE BANK
· [email protected] · [email protected] · [email protected] · [email protected] · [email protected] · [email protected] · [email protected] · [email protected]
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OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
NEWS BY DFDL
By: Jack Sheehan,Regional Tax Partner - DFDL
Since opening to foreign invest-ment and the suspension of US and European sanctions Myan-mar has attracted the atten-tion of international investors looking for the new ASEAN tiger economy.
Investing into Myanmar takes careful consideration of the numerous tax implications as well as risk factors affecting the investment. An investment structure must consider the in-vestors existing operations and strategic plans, and examine the possible option of setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the investment in Myanmar. Key considerations for foreign investors will be access to tax treaties, investment treaties, availability of tax holidays, deductibility of expenses and transfer pricing issues.
Holding companies are often used to structure investments into countries for various tax and investment planning rea-sons such as reducing with-holding taxes on dividends, royalties, service fees and fi-nancing costs, and reducing
or exempting capital gains tax. The location of the hold-ing company can have a great impact on the viability of the investment.
Below is a summary of some of the considerations when decid-ing on the holding company location for an investment in Myanmar:
Myanmar has signed double tax treaties with a number of other countries including UK, Singa-pore, Thailand, Malaysia and Korea. However, Myanmar and Switzerland have not yet initi-ated discussions for the signing of a tax treaty between the ju-risdictions.
Dividends paid by a Myanmar company are not subject to any withholding tax in Myanmar. In both Singapore and Thailand dividends received are gener-ally not subject to tax providing certain conditions are met. Ad-ditionally, dividends paid by a Singapore company to its share-holders are not subject to with-holding taxes. However, divi-dends paid by a Thai company to a non-resident shareholder are subject to a withholding tax of 10%.
Financing a Myanmar investment from Singapore or Thailand will normally result in interest or fi-nancing charges payable to the lender. Normally interest pay-ments paid by a Myanmar entity to a non-resident are subject to a withholding tax of 15%. How-ever, the tax treaties with Thai-land and Singapore offer relief to 10%. In the case of Singapore, an additional reduction is avail-able to Singaporean financial in-stitutions and banks to 8%.
Royalties paid from Myanmar to Singapore are subject a with-holding tax of 10% in respect of consideration for the use of, or the right to use, any patent, de-sign or model, plan, secret for-mula or process, or for the use of, of the right to use industrial, commercial or scientific equip-ment, or for information con-cerning industrial, commercial or scientific experience and 15% in all other cases.
Royalties paid from Myanmar to Thailand are subject to a with-holding tax of 5% of the gross amount of the royalties for the use of, or the right to use, any copyrights of literary, artistic or scientific work and 10% of the gross amount of the royalties for
THE USE OF THAILAND OR SINGAPORE FOR STRUCTURING INVESTMENTS INTO MYANMAR
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OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
NEWS BY DFDL
the consideration for any ser-vice of a managerial or consul-tancy nature, or for information technical services concerning industrial, commercial, or scien-tific experience, and 15% of the gross amount of the royalties in all other cases.
The capital gains provision of a tax treaty is often referred to as the “exit-option” is often very important to tax planning strat-egies. Under Myanmar tax law, capital gains tax is payable on the sale or transfer of shares in a Myanmar company.
This is of particular concern for foreign shareholders holding shares in Myanmar companies as the capital gains tax rate for non-resident shareholders is 40%. This rate is increased up to 50% for foreign companies in the oil and gas sector.
However, relief from Myanmar capital gains tax is available under the tax treaties signed with Thai-land and Singapore as follows:
• The Thailand tax treaty pro-vides that gains from the sale of shares in a Myanmar compa-ny, where the company consists principally of immovable prop-erty (real estate) which is situ-ated in Myanmar may be taxed in Myanmar. And gains from the sale of shares other than those mentioned above representing a participation of 35 per cent in a company which is a resident of a Myanmar may be taxed in Myanmar. Thus, capital gains from the sale of shares in a Myanmar company which does not hold immovable property and represents a participation of less than 35% is not taxable in Myanmar.
• The Singapore tax treaty pro-vides the same provision in respect to shares in that com-panies that hold immovable property may also be taxed in Myanmar. The Singapore treaty also contains a 35% participa-tion rule in determining when Myanmar can tax the gains. However, the Singapore tax
treaty also provides that in all cases the Myanmar capital gains tax is capped at a rate of 10%. This provides a significant ad-vantage over the Thailand tax treaty.
Foreign capital gains received by Thai companies are generally subject to Thai corporate income tax at 20%. However, Singapore does generally not tax capital gains and therefore gains re-ceived from selling shares in a Myanmar company will not be subject to tax in Singapore.
Myanmar tax planning does not stop at the Myanmar domestic level, but also continues to the level of the holding structure as shown below.
Singapore’s favorable territorial tax system makes Singapore a regional hub for ASEAN and an efficient location for structur-ing investments into Myanmar. However, before deciding on a location for a holding compa-ny, investors will also need to consider general anti-avoidance rules and requirements for ob-taining residency certificates to claim tax treaty relief.
Jack Sheehan, Regional Partner, Tax Practice Group, [email protected]
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OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
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NATIONAL POLICE BUREAU – IMMIGRATION ISSUES
Such letter has been circulated to all immigration offices na-tionwide in order to use as stan-dard guideline for visa extension. Apart from new rule and regula-tion, there are also examples of Question and Answer concern-ing several issues of the subject on the visa extension. There are about 120 items of Q and A at-tached to the aforementioned memo.
At this time, such memo has been kept as a secret issue; hence it will not be released to the public to access. No pho-tocopy or even handwriting to such new rule is allowed. There is no clear reason behind such strict confidentially.
The main issues, as far as recog-nized, are as follows:-
1. Visa extension shall be ap-proved up to the validity of the passport of the applicant, even the application is for one-year visa extension the approval shall be granted only until the passport validity date. This in-cludes the applicant’s depen-dents passport(s).
2. The new one-year visa ap-plication shall be re-submit-ted once the applicant’s new passport has been issued, this includes the applicant’s de-pendent’s passport(s). New gov-ernment fee for visa extension
and re-entry permit will be paid accordingly.
3. In case the validity date of the new and old passport is not connected, for example the ex-piry date of the old passport is 1 October 2013, the new passport must be issued and valid as of 2 October 2013. If the validity period is interrupted, say the new passport has been issued on 3 October 2013, in this case a daily penalty of Baht 500 shall be charged to the applicant and the penalty shall be continued up until the filing date, pen-alty charge is capped at Baht 20,000. If the visa extension is not submitted within 40 days as of the expiry date, the applicant can not file the visa application anymore and he must leave the country within 7 days and ac-quire a new non-immigrant visa “B” from the Thai embassy out-side again.
4. In case of a business visa, the company certificates at-tached to the visa application must be issued not more than 2 months before the filing date; the former rule was 6 months as of filing date.
5. Doctor certificate must be is-sued by either public hospital or private hospital. The doctor certificate issued by a private clinic is not acceptable.6. For retirement visa, the hus-
band’s or wife’s bank account of the last 3 months prior to the filing date must not be less than Baht 800,000. If it is a joint name account, the deposited amount must not be less than Baht 1,600,000. Formerly, the joint account of husband and wife was not acceptable.
7. Visa extension can be done only when the applicant’s ex-isting visa is valid for not less than 45 days and this rule shall be applied in every visa exten-sion. [Formerly, the visa validity date must be not less than 30 days and visa extension under the BOI privilege could be done any time prior to expiry date of the visa period (i.e. no need to wait until the visa is run for 45 days)].
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Provided by Dhira Yoonaidharma, Hutter & Dhirawww.hutterdhira.com
PS: As the immigration is not publishing this internal docu-ment, the exact procedure is still unclear for us, and we will stay on this matter, and inform you in this newsletter as soon as we hear further news. Please kindly report your experience in similar cases to [email protected].
NEW GUIDELINE FOR VISA EXTENSION
OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
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STCC MEMBER NEWS
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Activity: Environmental-friendly recycling of industrial x-ray films, reclaiming silver and high grade plastic for reuse.
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OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
10
EMBASSY OF SWITZERLAND – SCHENGEN VISA
Based on new Schengen- and Fed-eral Office for Migration (FOM) di-rectives, our Embassy will improve Schengen visa procedures and there-fore issue biometric visas starting from: 14th November, 2013.
This implies changes in our cur-rent visa procedure for any kind of travel purposes.
Starting from that date the per-sonal presence of the applicant will be mandatory to collect the visa applicant’s biometric
data (10-digit finger scans and digital photograph). The data is kept in the Visa Information System (VIS) for 5 years. Further information and FAQ on the data protection in VIS is available on the following homepage: http://ec.europa.eu/vis
Detailed information about the exact visa procedure and pos-sible exemptions of personal at-tendance at our Embassy will be published beginning of October, 2013 on the two websites:
Embassy: http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/reps/asia/vtha/rk-cban/visa/vistha.html
TLScontact: https://www.tlscontact.com/th2ch/login.php?l=en
Please check the available infor-mation on our websites regularly to obtain updated informationon the upcoming changes in the visa procedure.
NEW VISA PROCEDURE STARTING FROM 14TH NOVEMBER, 2013
OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
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JOINT FOREIGN CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
BOI Presentation on 6th Sep-tember to the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce by the Deputy Director General of the BOI, Khun Duangjai Asawachin-tachit informing of the new BOI Strategy to be effective from 1 Jan 2015.
The earlier proposal presented in March 2013 to the JFCC Com-munity has been reviewed and many comments and inputs from the JFCCT were “heard” and implemented in the new proposal. The new strategy is fair, good for Thailand as well as the foreign industrial in-vestors, and Khun Duangchai must be congratulated to the concept behind the new regu-lations as well as the obvious “listening” to foreign investors input as well as the profession-al presentation.
Below you find a summary, please also refer to the slide-show presentation for details at: http://www.swissthai.com/d o c u m e n t / B O I _ I n v e s t -ment_Strategy_2015_slide-show06.09.13.pdf
Summary
The new incentives are to be announced end of this year 2013, and will be implemented as per 1 Jan 2015, leaving a 1 year window for the investors
(local and foreign) to adjust their investment plans.
Compared to the existing BOI program there are 6 major changes (which make the new package quite different from the earlier version in March):
1. more focussed on sectors of industry
2. Besides the sectors, also merit concentrated, e.g. RD, design, training, local sup-plier development, etc.
3. new regional cluster - old (geographical) zones will be abolished
4. reduce corporate tax incen-tives [CTI] , but emphasize on facilitation and help / promotional role, and coor-dination with other govern-ment agencies
5. also promote outbound in-vestments
6. approval criteria based on outcome results, not solely on application’s initial data
New: Three Groups [A, B, Exit]
Group A still gets corporate tax incentives plus the basic incen-tives and has 4 sub-categories: A1 important for Thailand’s In-
dustryA2 Capital intensive A3 already in ThailandA4 lower technology and lower
complexity
In group A the tax incentives have NO relation to the loca-tion.
Group B gets no corporate tax incentives, but others, such as import duty exemption etc.Group B has basically no corpo-rate tax incentives, but if the project does the “merits”, they can get for this merit’s CTI.Group B1 / Group B2
EXIT Group: consisted earlier of approximately 80 types, now Exit group has been shrinked to only 5 in order that existing foreign industries can remain here and even expand their ac-tivities (and do not lose the right to buy land etc.). There is nearly no foreign investment involved in the last remaining 5 exit-activities.
Merit incentives are available for projects which have ad-ditional merit!! Merit defini-tion and benefits see table on page 12. Remark: max 8 years of corp tax holiday in total in-cluding merit – benefits.
Investment promotion act can be amended so BOI will have more investment promotion tools, and help herewith the foreign investors.
Criteria’s for Project approval have been slightly adjusted; new required minimum value-
NEW BOI STRATEGY
OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
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JOINT FOREIGN CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
added is mostly 20%, some industries 10% accepted. Ma-chinery older than 10 years can not be used under BOI anymore.Implementation of new BOI Strategy is only effective on 1. Jan 2015. All project expan-sions will get the same incen-tives as a new project.
Questions and Answer ses-sion:
1. Projects approved before 1 Jan 2015 will remain in the old scheme until expired. There are now already some special incentive packages available for border areas in the south.
2. ICT/Telecom Industry is now under concessions; will there be any special in-centives in this area also, when emerging away from concession system to free market access? Such proj-
ects , after freed from con-cessions, can apply for nor-mal BOI as others. Software park, development center are under BOI anyway.
3. Merit based incentives can be applied also during the first years of basic incen-tives, but not after first ba-sic incentives expired.
4. Projects applied in 2014, but start in 2015, will have incentives according the application date.
5. You can not apply for new scheme in 2014, you have to wait for 1 Jan 2015. Any application submitted be-fore this date is getting the old benefits.
6. New List of categories A and B and EXIT will be pub-lished end of 2013. Draft list is not available yet.
7. All existing BOI companies asking for new projects af-ter 1 st Jan 2015 will be only getting new incen-tives.
8. RD validation - BOI should help and facilitate this val-idation.
9. RD activities to be valid for Corporate income tax in-centives MUST be related to the promoted produc-tion if under merit. If not related, such activities can be applied for as a single RD project.
10. Section 31, section 34 is automatically also granted, to check referring on ex-emption of withholding tax on dividend payments to shareholders during BOI CIT exemption.
11. Promotion of outbound in-
OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
13
JOINT FOREIGN CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
vestment: BOI is now set-ting up a department to provide information such as investment opportunities, legal information etc. for investments in ASEAN and outside ASEAN to Thai com-panies.
12. New investment tools for BOI, what is in mind? E.g. Foreign majority for service businesses? No, BOI has used up all room and possi-bilities concerning foreign ownership, and the further facilitation increases are not pointed in the direction of foreign ownership.
13. ROH [Regional Operating Headquarters]: Ministry of Finance is working on revi-sions, and info will be dis-tributed.
14. Department of employment has agreed in principle to change some WP11 rules easing up.
15. Some investors wanted to have permission from BOI to employ foreign labour as the shortage of Thai labour (skilled and unskilled) is threatening more and more.
16. Some ask for better incen-
tives for foreign companies using Thailand as a base for export activities to ASEAN.
Thomas Gerber, Executive Director STCC, Sept 2013
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OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
SWISS SCHOOL NEWS
SWISS AUTHOR THOMAS MEYER VISITS SWISS SCHOOL BANGKOK
14
On 02.09.2013, Swiss School Bangkok hosted Swiss author Thomas Meyer. Visiting authors and journalists are not uncom-mon for the school and are a great opportunity for the students to meet creative and innovative people in person.
During his visit, Mr. Meyer enter-tained the students from grades 10 - 11 and shared his tips for starting a career as a profes-sional author. He read from his debut novel »Wolkenbruchs wun-derliche Reise in die Arme einer Schickse« (Wolkenbruch’s Won-drous Journey into the Arms of a Shiksa). The book recounts the romantic misadventures of a young Jewish man in Zurich, and is narrated in a mixture of stan-dard German and Yiddish. It was released in the spring of 2012 and has enjoyed great success: it was nominated for the Swiss Book Prize, and Thomas Meyer received a tribute from the city of Zollikon. The book has sold 25,000 copies so far, and the
publishing house Diogenes is set to release a paperback version in 2014. There are also trans-lations in the works. Mr. Meyer met the challenge of addressing
the students successfully. Swiss School Bangkok was able to host Thomas Meyer with the help and support of the Swiss Embassy in Bangkok.
Important events in the first semester of the new school year:15. 10. 2013 Annual General Meeting SEA12. 11. 2013 Open House Day 15. 11. 2013 Loy Krathong Day09. 12. 2013 Sports Day19. 12. 2013 Christmas Party
Please visit our website www.swissschoolbangkok.org and get more information about our upcoming events.
OCTOBER 2013 | SWISS-THAI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | E-NEWSLETTER #40
SWISS SCHOOL NEWS
On Thursday, the 5th of Septem-ber 2013, at 12:50 PM, Swiss School Bangkok held a ceremony in the school arena to present the language diplomas (DSD I, DSD II and CAE) to students.
Students of the secondary school and their teachers were greeted with welcoming words from Mrs Monika Eberl, Principal a.i. and the new head of sec-ondary school.The principal mentioned that more and more institutions of higher education and employers are requiring language certifi-cates from their candidates as proof of their language compe-tence. This is why Swiss School Bangkok is preparing their stu-
dents by offering internation-ally recognized language exams.The “Deutsches Sprachdiplom der Kultusministerkonferenz” (engl.: German Language Diplo-ma of the Education Ministers Conference) can be obtained by high school students abroad as a certificate proving German language proficiency in two lev-els. The DSD-Level I (DSD-A2/B1) is considered proof that the student has the level of abil-ity in German that is required for entry to a college to study. Students of Grade 8 took part in these exams in spring 2013. For the first time our students of Grade 11 took part in the DSD II exams. The DSD-Level II (DSD-B2/C1) is taken by students in
the upper classes of second-ary school and is considered to show that students have the level of ability in German that is required to be able to study at a university in Germany.Additionally the students of Grade 11 have successfully passed the exams for the Ad-vanced English Certificate (CAE), issued by the University of Cambridge.
Our students proudly received their diplomas from Mrs Monika Eberl and the head of primary school, Ms. Johanna Vaenskae.This school year Swiss School Bangkok will start offering lan-guage diploma programmes in Spanish and French as well.
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LANGUAGE DIPLOMA CEREMONY
