30% of the entire company must be locally owned?
That seems unlikely to work out.
Does any country have local ownership rules of this kind?
That seems unlikely to work out.
Does any country have local ownership rules of this kind?
It's a terrible policy which has significantly stifled entrepreneurship. Most businesses skirt around it by either funneling their revenue through a free zone or hiring an Emirati "owner."
These sorts of policies are classic populist maneuvers which seem like a good idea, but impose a tax on business activity which outweighs any gains to be had.
I can remember when 51% ownership was announced that suddenly the grocery stores (which is international companies) didn't have basic products like maize and salt on their shelves anymore because the companies didn't want to invest operating capital into the stores anymore.
Eg: A foreigner can't own a taxi or handicraft business. If you want to start a business in the fisheries sector, you need 30% local ownership and there's a minimum investment $ amount (I believe USD$250k).
Full list of Reserved and Restricted Businesses: http://imgur.com/a/zx31r
The land ownership is creating big problems for expats trying to build a future there as they either try to circumvent the law by holding the land in a companies name (which they are not really allowed to control) or in their wifes/girlfriends name which tends to end badly in many cases.
Thailands court system is also not exactly stellar and tends to side with Thais.
Combine that with visa troubles (even if you should be so lucky to get permanent residency, you'll still need a work permit to do any work even voluntary for free, what the?) and you can see that it's tough for foreigners to invest in Thailand and to put roots down and build a future.
If they didn't have the BOI, Thailand would likely have no economy to speak of as none of the bigger companies would have set up their factories there.
Similar (and arguably even bigger) issues are to be found in virtually all countries in south east asia apart from Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.