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BANGKOK
BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF March 2012
BUSINESS BRIEF
Vol. No. 1, Issue No. 4
1
March 2012
Daily business news briefs at www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com
A Renaissance for Thailand’s Skilled Labor Force? Inside
General Interest Economy Government Finance/Investment Production Infrastructure/Logistics Retail/Services IT/Comms Tourism Real Estate Environment/CSR Business Organizations The Chambers The Calendar
By Dean Outerson
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When the devastating floods hit Thailand’s numerous industrial estates last year, hundreds of companies were forced to suspend production and close their factories. That meant that tens of thousands of skilled workers were left without work at a time when the Thai economy was just beginning to pick up again after the global financial crisis of the previous two to three years. At the same time, in an ironic twist of ‘reverse globalization,’ a number of Japanese firms, in an attempt
to maintain some levels of production, decided to send their skilled Thai workers to facilities in Japan to supervise unskilled Japanese workers. Working on six month work visas and with more than 2,000 Thai workers participating in this program, these skilled IT and electronics supervisors are now helping their Japanese counterparts improve their efficiency and ramp up the pace of production.
tion out of Japan – and into Thailand – had begun. “On December 5, approximately 30 Thai employees went in for their first day at the factory of video equipment manufacturer JVC Kenwood Corp. in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. After exchanging greetings with their Japanese counterparts, they went to work on the production line for security cameras marketed to corporations.
According to the Mainichi newspaper, this reversal of roles has The Thai JVC Kenwood emcome about fifteen years after ployees who are now in Japan the process of moving producStory continues on Page 20.