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Member Benefits

SUPPORTING YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

AND

HELPING YOU POSITION TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE RECOVERY

The Coronavirus pandemic has impacted an already fundamentally changing business environment. Different strategies are required to flourish in this new normal. The BCCT is determined to stand together with our members supporting them, meeting these challenges, helping them exploit opportunities and assisting them grow a profitable business in these changing and challenging times.

This paper documents the full range of services offered by BCCT. Our mission over 12 months is to deliver to you significantly greater value from these services than the membership fee. Many of these services are available only to members and those that are open to non-members are significantly discounted for members. Any number of employees may access the benefits of corporate membership - we do not limit the number of representatives per company.

1. KNOWLEDGE SHARING

• Topical Webinars when ‘physical’ events became impossible BCCT moved swiftly to webinars: Topics presented so far include: Effects of the Coronavirus on Businesses in Thailand; The Thai Economy in 2020; Tax Impact; Banking Support for SMEs; The Impact of the Coronavirus on Business in China; Leading Your Business in a Time of Crisis; Employment Law; and Covid-19, what’s next for you? Members are very welcome to propose topics and speakers, and are encouraged to publicise attendance to colleagues. Webinars are free of charge for BCCT members. Non-members pay a fee. Audio recordings and PowerPoint presentations are archived for members to access.

• Working Groups members are encouraged to participate in BCCT’s current active working groups: Covid-19, Digital Technology, Eastern Economic Corridor, Events, Human Resources (to come in May 2020), Legal & Taxation, Property & Infrastructure, Travel & Tourism, and Young Professionals. Also members are welcome to suggest formation of new working groups.

• Coronavirus Hub (launched on 24 April 2020): The Hub contains key information divided into these sections: Accounting, Banking & Finance, Board of Investment, Employment, Healthcare, Insurance, Taxation, Events/Webinars and Publicly Available Information. The Hub is updated on a daily basis from numerous sources including in Thai language translated into English, and is available to members only.

• Chamber Chat an open-house virtual networking forum for members to interact with each other. Participants introduce themselves and their companies. Then the BCCT team facilitates a group discussion based on shared knowledge, experiences, concerns, ideas and solutions for working through the coronavirus crisis and positioning for gradual recovery. The format is a Zoom Meeting with all participants joining via video.

• Podcasts (to come in May 2020): a program of audio interviews and presentations by key private and public sector figures including live broadcasts, all archived for member access.

• Events: (when possible again): prior to the Coronavirus outbreak BCCT lead-organized approximately 80 events per year on a huge range of topics for 20 to 500 people. Events provide a great forum for members to interact and make new business connections. Ideas for new event formats and topics are very welcome. BCCT also offers professional management and organisation services for member’s corporate events including identifying, inviting and chasing up attendees.

• Website (www.bccthai.com): provides access to a host of information resources and connections to a huge number of business contacts in Thailand, the rest of Asia and the United Kingdom.

2. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

• Introductions to potential customers: utilising the BCCT Executive Director’s extensive range of business contacts. Members select the companies from the membership that they would like to be introduced to and provide a brief introduction to their company activities. The Executive Director then contacts the selected companies.

• Business-Matching: over the past seven years BCCT’s Business Support Services team has gained extensive expertise in assisting companies develop their businesses in Thailand. Services include: identifying potential customers or partners and introducing member’s products or services. The BCCT team will be pursuing Business-Matching activities with the Federation of Thai Industries and the Office of SME Promotion.

• Meeting Arrangement: meetings for members with companies selected by them. Meetings are scheduled and presented with directions and brief background information on the companies selected.

• Business Mentoring: engaging members in a non-competing business to support and advise newcomers to Thailand or members with a specific issue. The arrangement would be flexible and comprise an initial meeting and follow-up meetings over the agreed period as needed. If any members are interested in acting as a ‘mentor’ and would like further information please contact – greg@bccthai.com.

• Referrals: a member may be referred by the BCCT office or board to an enquirer looking for a specific product or service. In such cases and in order to ensure fairness to all members, contact details of all members able to respond to the enquiry are provided.

• Company Background Checks: BCCT can provide the following information on any company registered in Thailand: company name, address and telephone number; company purpose/description; date and place of registration; registered and paid-up capital in THB; list of shareholders with nationality and percentage shareholding for each; Registered Directors & authorized signatories; and Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet for last 5 years. The BCCT team will translate the information from Thai into English and present in a summary report.

• Business Support: services in addition to the above include competitor analysis and sector research. The BCCT team can also provide assistance in addressing key day-to-day doing business concerns and understanding macro-economic and political issues.

3. UPSKILLING YOUR TEAM

• Skills Development Workshops: Prior to the Coronavirus outbreak BCCT had developed a successful program of skills development workshops held at member hotels or the BCCT office. Moving to online delivery has allowed us to engage with member training companies in Thailand and UK to deliver short (90 minutes or 3 hours long) sessions. They are delivered through online platforms such as Zoom Meeting and focus on enhancing soft skills for junior and middle managers in member companies.

Examples of topics to be scheduled are: Managing People Through Change; How To Communicate When Working From Home; Smart Leadership Behaviours During a Crisis; Managing Stress Working from Home; Retaining Customers During a Pandemic; Best Practice for Small Businesses; Protecting your business; Risk Management; Procedures in Your Business during Covid 19; Performance & Productivity; Leadership & Management; Wellbeing; Workforce Development; Understanding Thai Communication and Culture; Creative Problem Solving; Virtual Leadership - leading teams online; Adapting to Personal Change; Negotiations; Motivating people; Change Management; Business Ethics & Etiquette; Coaching and Mentoring; Digital Citizenship - translate our social skills into the virtual world; Managing a remote workforce; Telework and Telecommuting, and many more.

Class sizes are from 9 to 12 people. The fee per person ranges from only THB 1,500 to THB 2,750 depending on workshop length and topic. Please engage your managers in this initiative by supporting their participation in these workshops. If you have any ideas or suggestions for topics to be presented please email – greg@bccthai.com.

4. CORPORATE PROMOTION

• Sponsorship:

  • Annual Partnership: off-the-shelf and bespoke packages starting at THB 150,000 available on the principle of combining specific benefits requested by the partner and then providing a large discount on the fee.

  • Major Events: Life & Style Garden Party, Thailand International Business Awards (TIBA) and Annual Christmas Luncheon. Packages are available from THB 50,000 per company or THB 200,000 for event naming

  • Individual Events: many BCCT events are open to non-exclusive corporate sponsorship starting at THB 5,000.

• Speed Webinars: members may present a topic of wide interest, share experiences of working through this crisis or present their products or services. 10-15 minutes for the presentation with 5 minutes Q&A, total 20 minutes maximum. Please contact – greg@bccthai.com – if you would like to participate.

• Virtual MarketPlace (to come in May 2020): a page on the BCCT website where members can promote their products and services to other members. Each entry may link to a company’s website but there is also the email address of a specific contact who will respond personally to any enquiry. The Virtual Marketplace will be open to non-BCCT members to access but only members can list there.

• Advertising: paid advertising is available for the BCCT Annual Handbook & Directory, banners on the BCCT website (including the homepage, events calendar and individual member profile page), banner on BCCT Members and Events Newsletters, and posts on the BCCT Facebook page.

• Sponsored Emails: digital advertorial emailing for members sent to full BCCT database of 3,200 individual contacts. It is possible to embed an advertisement, image and text, or just text into the body of a BCCT email circular. Large discounts for multiple emails.

• Member Database: members only may access contact details of the main representative of 600 member companies online 24/7.

• Annual BCCT Directory: Members have a complimentary half page profile display with a shelf-life of one year in the Annual Members Handbook & Directory published every December online and in A4 printed format.

5. WELLBEING

• Physical Fitness: we are working with a BCCT Annual Partner fitness company in order to direct members to their fitness sessions delivered on virtual platforms.

• Healthcare & Mental Wellbeing: BCCT is working with two Annual Partner hospitals and other member companies to deliver webinars on health issues, anxiety, mental wellbeing and stress during the Coronavirus crisis.

6. ADVOCACY – The Voice of Your Business in Thailand

BCCT formulates advocacy positions based on feedback from members, through the Legal and Taxation Group and in consultation with 13 Honorary Advisers to the BCCT board. BCCT has been working closely with the Foreign Chambers Alliance (FCA) and Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce Thailand (JFCCT) on delivering joint positions to the Thai government.

• Bilateral: as BCCT alone and with British Embassy support. The BCCT Chair is active on the Board of Trade of Thailand and Thai Chamber of Commerce in order to better understand the concerns of Thai business.

• Multi-lateral:

  • Foreign Chambers Alliance (FCA): with AMCHAM, AustCham and GTCC. On Friday 10th April FCA sent a letter to the Finance Minister requesting financial support for SMEs in order to help keep staff employed.

  • European Association for Business and Commerce (EABC): all European bilateral chambers in Thailand

  • Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce Thailand (JFCCT): all foreign chambers in Thailand except AMCHAM, AustCham and BCCT. BCCT engages in JFCCT meetings during the Coronavirus crisis