Thailand’s May proposal targeted duplicate licensing for selected foreign-owned services

The draft focused on activities already supervised under other regimes

The Cabinet summary described eight service-related areas in the proposed package. They included telecommunications, treasury-centre activities, shared administrative, HR and IT services between related entities, certain domestic guarantees within corporate groups, limited leasing of space for financial equipment and employee vending machines, petroleum drilling, and specified securities and derivatives activities.

The policy logic was regulatory overlap. Several of those businesses already sit under specialised laws and regulators, so the proposal aimed to remove a separate Foreign Business Act permission where another framework was already doing the substantive supervision. The government cited telecommunications, treasury centres, capital-markets activities and petroleum drilling as examples of sectors that would remain regulated even if an FBA permission was no longer required for the defined activity.

The proposal was also capable of changing before finalisation. By the 13 May clarification, software-development services had been taken out after concerns were raised about the effect on Thailand’s domestic digital industry. That made the draft a poor basis for broad assumptions about what foreign-owned companies would ultimately be allowed to do.

For practical context, see Thailand economy and finance. This development also connects with Thailand expands Foreign Business Licence exemptions.

August regulations turned the proposal into a much more concrete test

The legal position moved on later in the year. Ministerial rules published in the Royal Gazette on 28 August 2026 brought specific exemptions into effect, and a September government summary again stressed that the relief was limited to listed activities and did not displace sector-specific laws or licensing conditions.

For a foreign-owned company, the question therefore changed between May and August. In May, the relevant issue was whether a proposed activity might eventually leave the FBA licensing process; after the regulations took effect, the company had to test its actual operations against the final wording and conditions. Businesses outside the defined exemptions did not gain a general right to operate without an FBA licence or other applicable permission.