New bid to save elite card scheme
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Property developer to sell Bt1m visa privileges
Thailand Privilege Card Co is searching urgently for a real-estate developer to help sell its Thailand Elite Cards as a way to save its operation, which is fast using up its last capital injection from the government.
Three companies are talking to the TPC and a deal to sell at least 200 cards is expected to be finalised soon. To be qualified, a developer must run a stable business and play a leading role in the property industry. The winner will start selling the cards next month.
Wilaiwan Tawitsri, a director and acting president, said it was a short-term solution and also a new challenge for the operation to get fresh funds to move ahead.
Last year, the government earmarked Bt100 million for the TPC, considered the last contribution.
A new card membership costs Bt1 million and gets only a visa privilege. The developer is allowed to design its own card package to sell with its units. The customer target is foreigners who want to invest and do business in Thailand.
They will get a five-year visa, good for stays of up to one year per visit, up from 90 days previously. Applicants will undergo a personal background check to ensure that they are not blacklisted.
The privilege for the new Bt1-million card is different from the original Bt2-million card, which, besides the special visa, also provided free services such as spa sessions and golf games, but with limits to the number of uses per year.
On May 30, the card will be relaunched after it had been in limbo for many years while the government considered whether to keep the company, which was bleeding red ink, alive or to kill it.
This national membership card, reportedly the first in the world, was the brainchild of Thaksin Shinawatra when he was prime minister.
Initially, the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s overseas offices in Russia and Asia will help distribute the cards, but later sales agents will be appointed when the TPC’s board approves the marketing plan.
The 2,534 existing cardholders have had their membership term slashed from lifetime to 20 years.
