July Economic Review/Finland Chamber of Commerce

Some excerpts from Mauri Kotamäki’s (Chief Economist/Finland Chamber of Commerce) latest July 2020 economic review:

  • The more open the economy, the more open it is also to disruptions in the economy. Finland is an open economy with about 40% of its GDP coming from exports.
  • One of the main tasks of decision-makers is to reduce the uncertainty that has been growing dramatically during the last few months.
  • This year, the total amount of exports and proof-of-origin documents given by the chambers of commerce has decreased significantly.
  • If the coronavirus crisis would impact the economy the same way as the financial crisis 2008-09, the economic growth would turn positive during the 2nd quarter of 2021. In this case, the GDP would drop only by about 6%.

The original (in Finnish):

Talouskatsaus heinäkuu 2020 (2)

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TFCC President’s Letter – 4th of June

Dear Fellow Members,

Here are my thoughts today and some information about our events in June 2020.

 

FOURTH OF JUNE

Today is the birthday of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, the most famous military leader and former president of Finland, who helped Finland earn its independence.

The occasion is also celebrated as the Flag Day of The Finnish Defence Forces. The military reserve forces and reserve officers are an important part of The Finnish Defence Forces. The Finnish military national defence is based on the civic duty of military service. Once you have completed the conscript service part of the liability for military service, you will be mustered out in the Finnish Defence Forces’ reserve. Most of the conscripts, who are trained to be officers, graduate from the Reserve Officer School (Reserviupseerikoulu) which is a part of Army Academy and where they receive leadership training. Since 1920 the Reserve Officer School has trained over 175,000 reserve officers for the Finnish Defence Forces reserve.

Thank you Marshal Mannerheim and The Finnish Defense Forces for the Independence of Finland and congratulations the Reserve Office School for 100 years of leadership training!

 

NEW CORPORATE MEMBERS

  • Lunawood Oy brings the heart of the forest into everyone’s life through their product Lunawood Thermowood.
  • Aneo Software Oy helps O&M teams to execute strategic maintenance programs by providing their cloud based CMMS software service to keep operations up and running 24/7.

Welcome to our chamber!

 

TFCC EVENTS & WEBINARS 2020

The first TFCC Webinar: “Channel Sales in Asia” was organised on 13 May 2020 and facilitated by Asian Insiders

  • TFCC Advisor and former president Mr. Jari Hietala and his partners Mr. Pietro Karjalainen and Mr. Volker Friedrich from Asian Insiders conducted the webinar online.
  • Almost 30 participants received information about “How to Develop Your Sales via Third Party Sales Channels?”

A new TFCC webinar is coming up on 15 June 2020 from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm

  • Thailand’s Education Sector: An Update of Developments and Opportunities for Finnish Companies
  • Practical guidance for Finnish entrepreneurs who think of expanding into Thailand’s growing market post COVID-19
  • The webinar will be organised in collaboration with The Embassy of Finland to Thailand and Education Finland.
  • Registration will open soon here: https://thaifin.org/events-catalog/

Other webinars co-branded by TFCC

Other up-coming TFCC events planned for now are:

  • 21 September 2020: TFCC Annual Ordinary General Meeting
  • 21 November 2020: TFCC Open Golf Tournament 2020 (The Ambassador’s Cup)
  • 28 November 2020: TFCC Pre-Christmas Party

 

FOLLOW-UP

Please, follow our website, Facebook and LinkedIn sites for all up-coming events at

Looking forward to seeing you at these events!

 

NEXT LETTER

My next letter will come out in July.

I hope that the Cabinet will decide to end the national state of emergency and related measures in the end of June 2020.

Until then stay safe and enjoy your life with friends and family!

 

Yours sincerely

Jorma Manninen
President

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Legal Update: New Ministerial Regulation for Factories

A new ministerial regulation has been issued to ensure the preservation of environmental quality and the law compliance of factories in Thailand. More details of this regulation in the attached newsletter.

Legal Newsletter_Issue 2 – May 2020

 

 

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TFCC President’s Letter – May Day 2020

Dear Fellow Members,

Happy May Day!

I think we were all looking for the end of the national state of emergency and celebrate May Day (Vappu) today; however, at the end of April, the government spokesperson announced that the Cabinet has decided to extend the national state of emergency and related measures, which include maintaining border closures and the current 10 pm to 4 am curfew until 31 May 2020.

Unfortunately we had to cancel our traditional annual Vappu Party 2020, but don’t worry, Vappu comes again next year!

Patience is a virtue so let’s be patient and build up our resilience while working at home and staying with our friends and families …

That was the bad news and now to the good news …

  • Our accounting service supplier KlarACC, who is also our corporate member, took over the secretarial and administrative services from our office manager.
  • Our private office room for two was downgraded to open office space for one to save cost.
  • Our address remains the same; however, we don’t have office phone number anymore, only mobile.

Our vice president and treasurer Mr. Antti Rahikainen and executive director Mr. Teuvo Tuomi have done a great job negotiating new agreements with KlarACC and IW Serviced Office!

A new TFCC webinar is coming up on 13 May 2020 at 4:00 – 5:30 pm

  • Our former president and current advisor to the board, Mr. Jari Hietala and his partners at Asian Insiders will facilitate a webinar about Channels Sales in Asia – How to develop your sales vie third party sales channels? More detailed information about the webinar is here: https://thaifin.org/events/channel-sales-in-asia/
  • Registration is open here: https://tfcc.eventbank.com/event/channel-sales-in-asia-22136/
  • Our members and the members of the co-branding foreign chambers of commerce can get a 10% discount code from their respective executive directors.
  • Please, register and join the webinar as soon as possible!

Other up-coming TFCC events planned for now are:

  • TFCC Annual Ordinary General Meeting on 21 September 2020
  • TFCC Open Golf Tournament 2020 (The Ambassador’s Cup) on 21 November 2020
  • TFCC Pre-Christmas Party on 28 November 2020

Please, book these dates in your calendars!

TFCC is co-branding a few webinars to be organized by other foreign chambers of commerce in Thailand

Please, follow our website, Facebook and LinkedIn sites for all up-coming events at

Looking forward to seeing you at these events!

Next letter

My next letter will come out in June.

I hope that the Cabinet will decide to end the national state of emergency and related measures in the end of May 2020.

Until then stay safe and enjoy your life with friends and family!

Yours sincerely

Jorma Manninen
President

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TFCC President’s Letter – April Fools’ Day

Dear Fellow Members,

For your information …

  • Our office manager, Ms. Kewalin (Kel) Kiatchusak, ended her employment at our office yesterday in order to move to Finland and start studying intercultural studies at Helsinki University later this year. On behalf of TFCC I want to thank her for her services to all of us and I wish her good luck in Finland!
  • Our intern Miss Henna Kirjavainen ended her internship in March and she will complete her thesis concerning TFCC Inbound Marketing Strategy in Finland. We will share the results of her study at our annual ordinary general meeting on 21st September 2020 at Rembrandt Hotel in Bangkok.

A few strategic decisions were made in March 2020 …

  • Instead of recruiting a new office manager the board of directors of TFCC decided to outsource secretarial and administrative services from 1 April 2020 to KlarACC Co., Ltd., who is already delivering accounting services to TFCC. Services requiring legal advisory will be outsourced to Wissen & Co. Lawyers just as before. Wissen & Co. Lawyers is our Partner and both companies are our corporate members.
  • Board of directors of TFCC decided to terminate our contract concerning private office space for two persons with IW Serviced Office Co., Ltd.; however, we decided to sign a new contract with IW Serviced Office from 1 April 2020 concerning office space for one person only on the 23rd floor of Two Pacific Place building. Our executive director, Mr. Teuvo Tuomi, will continue working for us and he will use the office space alone from now on.

Outsourcing secretarial and administrative services and downgrading office space for one person only will reduce our fixed cost to minimum.

Unfortunately almost all of our events like so many other events in Thailand have been cancelled due to present global situation as you all know; however, we plan to organize Vappu Party on 1st of May and continue our monthly TFCC Get Together Meetings (GTM) on the last Friday of the month for those, who are healthy.

The outcome of the present situation is that several corporate and individual members of TFCC have had to downscale or shut down their operations or even withdraw their business from Thailand completely. The impact of this is reduced income from annual partnership and membership fees as well as lack of sponsorship income from planned, but cancelled events. The board of directors will monitor the situation and control costs in order to survive until the situation is over and we will get back our old members or attract new ones. I hope all our members, who can continue their memberships will renew their membership in due time.

For your information I started working today for a privately owned company called ANEO Software Oy from Finland. I set up and registered Thailand Representative Office of ANEO Software in Q1/20 and now I am acting as the Representative Office Manager in Thailand and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in South-East Asia. ANEO Software Oy develops software for asset and maintenance management and its maintenance management system, ARTTURI, is the leading solution for maintenance management in Finland. ARTTURI is now available in Thailand and will be delivered to customers as a service rather than licensed software.

I am now working from my home office in Chonburi (Pattaya) as so many other people do nowadays conducting virtual meetings and focusing more work time on inbound digital marketing rather than outbound marketing.

Yours sincerely

Jorma Manninen
President

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Covid-19: Cabinet Resolutions

The enclosed file is the summary of the measures (that are relevant to businesses) from cabinet resolutions on 10th March and 24th March 2020.

Message from Chairman TCC&BOT (Board Member)

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TFCC President’s Letter – 12 March 2020

Dear Fellow Members,

For your information that I relocated from Bangkok to Chonburi (Pattaya) yesterday.

Yesterday my landlord registered me as her new tenant, i.e., she submitted TM.30 report to Chonburi Immigration in Pattaya.

Today, I went to Chonburi Immigration in Pattaya and wanted to register my new home address, i.e., to submit the TM.28 report.

The immigration officer did not accept my TM.28 report and she told me that I don’t have to register my new home address because my landlord had already submitted the TM.30 report.

I showed her a copy of the TM.30 receipt with me; however, she told me that I must keep the original TM.30 receipt with my passport.

She told me that I don’t have to report my address after traveling; however, my landlord must report my return home every time.

Local landlords can apply for access codes for the online address registration system on the second floor at Chonburi Immigration in Pattaya.

Yours sincerely

Jorma Manninen
President

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TFCC President’s Letter – February 2020

Dear Fellow Members, Partners and Friends,

For your information we have made a few new decisions, organised events and been active in many ways.

Decisions

  • We decided to start procurement of secretarial and administrative services from external parties, who we think are capable of delivering services required by TFCC.

Events

  • TFCC Shrove Sunday and House Warming Party had to be cancelled due to coronavirus fears.
  • TFCC GT Friday on 28 February 2020 at Bully’s Pub – GT Friday is a get together after work party for members and guests every last Friday of the month.

Activities

  • TFCC Presidents are negotiating with a few potential new members and partners, who are interested in collaborating wth us.
  • TFCC executive director Mr. Teuvo Tuomi started working for TFCC in February 2020.
  • TFCC new business address has been registered at DBD and other government authorities , banks, etc. will be informed in March 2020.
  • TFCC Intern Miss Henna Kirjavainen is conducting her bachelor thesis about Inbound Marketing Strategy and she will report the results in March 2020.

New Members

  • TFCC has received and approved a few membership applications and new members will be introduced later and their contact information will be uploaded on our website.

Other Issues

  • I will relocate my family from Bangkok to Chonburi (Pattaya) in March and start working in Thailand for a Finnish company in April 2020.

Have a nice weekend!

Jorma Manninen, President

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