Ministry irked by rating drop

However, overall, Thailand’s ranking in the World Bank’s "Ease of Doing Business 2015" edged up two places to 26th.

Pongpun Gearaviriyapun, director-general of the Business Development Department, said the bank "was inaccurate in some points", which negatively affected the ranking. It set the length of time required to start a business in Thailand at 27 and a half days.

"The department has tried hard to improve its efficiency for registering new companies and helping enterprises do business easily. The department has continued to adopt new technology such as e-registration and e-certification to facilitate enterprises nationwide," she said.

For one thing, she said, the World Bank overestimated the time it took to obtain a corporate seal at four days, when in reality it takes only three hours, Pongpun said.

The bank analysed four start-up procedures. The first was "search and reserve a company name online", which it said took "less than one day". The second was "deposit paid-in capital in a bank", taking one day. Third was obtaining a corporate seal, which it claimed took four days.

The fourth procedure is the longest, totalling 22 days according to the bank. Among other details, this entails final registration of the new company as a legal entity and submission of a copy of workplace regulations.

Pongpun said that in fact, her department had significantly improved its procedures for registering new companies and helping them operate. It has shortened the verification and registration time, and adopted electronic systems.

She said a new company could reserve a name within 20 minutes through the electronic registration system. It can receive a tax identification number and a corporate seal within three hours.

As for submitting a copy of its workplace regulations, this is only required if the new company has more than 10 employees. This requirement is in accordance with the Labour Law, and is not about doing business, Pongpun said.