Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about well this six countries, what do they call it, one destination, which I talked about in the past and it was earlier on in the tenure of the current coalition Government. I think it was actually under the Srettha Administration and I was critical at that time because the way it was sort of presented as sort of an immigration initiative between all these different countries. I'll get into correcting myself, well correction might not be the right word, it seems that this thing has evolved a little bit and although it is still using a similar moniker, it's not quite substantively what it was before. So maybe there is a corrective element to it but what I am trying to say is when I first heard this idea of like six countries one destination, I did not love it and now I like it a lot more. 

Another thing to sort of preface this video with is Thailand and Cambodia, obviously very much I am a naturalized Thai. I came to live in Thailand, I have primarily lived in Thailand for the better part of 20 years, and I have come to love this country especially as a naturalized Thai myself, but I've always had a real soft spot and frankly a kind of curiosity for Cambodia, and I have spent a lot of time over there. One of my best friends in this region actually lived over there for a very, very long period of time and I would go visit him rather frequently, usually about once a quarter. In fact, I started doing it going back to when they first rolled out 90-day reporting again which if you go back to around about 2008, ‘9, ‘10 - somewhere in there, I can't remember exactly when - they started rolling that back out in earnest. It was very similar to when they rolled out TM30 again. It had already been on the books but there was a long period of time where they just didn't really enforce it. So for like the first year or two as I recall that I lived here in Thailand, you didn't have to do 90-day reporting and in fact, the first year I was in Thailand, I didn't do 90-day reporting because I had to go over to Cambodia once every quarter anyway, because I was on one of the old what they used to call Multi-entry Business Visas which was a Business Visa issued abroad that gave you 90 days of lawful status at a stretch and then you had to do a Border Run at that time in order to keep up your lawful status and come back in. Kind of similar to the way that DTV is working out where you do 6 months and then you have to leave and come back in. So the point I am trying to make though is I have had a fair amount of interaction with Cambodia. Enough that I'm aware of it and it's exotic and it's interesting to me, but not enough that it becomes in any way pedestrian for lack of a better term in terms of it becomes an everyday thing that you, in my case I, experience. As a result of that I have these kind of romantic for lack a better term not to get too hyperbolic here, but kind of a romantic view of Cambodia. I do understand that the history - especially during the Communist times - is very, very troubling when you read about it and frankly in many ways terrible, but the Cambodian people are very nice people; the culture is fascinating, as much as I'm fascinated with Thai culture and just it's ancient traditions and customs. I find this stuff fascinating. Cambodia has much the same. It's similar. As they say out here colloquially, "same, same but different. Thailand and Cambodia kind of have that feel to them in much more - I've been to Myanmar, I have been to Laos, I have been to Vietnam, I've been to Malaysia - those places on mainland Southeast Asia, they have their similarities and dissimilarities to Thailand but there is something for lack of a better term almost magical in my mind about Thailand and Cambodia. They truly are breathtakingly interesting countries is all I'm going to say. And Cambodia has also always been almost like a window back in time as well. It's like certain aspects of it, it's like going over especially when I first started going over there in 2008 and '9, it was like stepping back in time in many ways and in a certain way Myanmar is like that. When I first went over there in 2009 it was very much like stepping back in time although stepping back in time as if time stopped and there was no maintenance whatsoever done, especially in certain aspects of the capital in Yangon at that time. I'm sure and I've been told things have improved and have been developed quite a bit since, not to get into that too deeply.

But the point I'm trying to make is these developments regarding economic and otherwise collaboration between Thailand and Cambodia are in my mind very positive and it looks like they could have very positive overall implications in the broader region here in Southeast Asia and it looks like this could have really fascinating and interesting implications for tourism. Let me get into it here. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thai-Cambodian collaboration continues in anniversary year. "PHNOM PENH - Thailand and Cambodia are expanding collaboration across various sectors, including investment, tourism and culture as they celebrate the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties." Now that's an interesting one because if you look at the broader history, obviously Thailand and Cambodia have had a much longer history of relations but in sort of the modern era I guess you could say for lack of a better term, the post-colonial era for Cambodia at least, I'd say that's a fair statement, 75 years of “diplomatic ties” in that sense. That said, quoting further: "As for tourism, Mr. Tull said Thailand is promoting joint tourism initiatives under the concept of "Six Countries, One Destination" encouraging travellers to experience multiple countries within Southeast Asia." 

Yeah again, going back to the preface of this video. I had talked about this when this Government came in and started talking about doing this kind of thing and I was very concerned because maybe I was a little focused on viewing it as a zero-sum game that Thailand was going to lose something by promoting other jurisdictions as other tourism spots. But it is sort of one of those things that sometimes a rising tide raises all ships and this is an example I think where I may have been a little too fast to be judgmental of the possible negative ramifications of this and I failed to maybe see that it works both ways or multiple different ways. The whole region could benefit from more people coming to the region and I think it is fair to say, Thailand is very much going to end up being and is already, an epicenter for travel here in terms of the air infrastructure, now the train system that is being built up which I mean the Metro, especially the light rail infrastructure in Thailand is off the chart; it's amazing frankly. It's kind of a marvel of Southeast Asia in terms of metropolitan train systems. I mean I can't think of anything that's even comparable to it in the region and frankly it's pretty high up there in terms of around the world at this point I think it's fair to say. Meanwhile, also they are coming along with the high-speed rail system which again remains to be seen in terms of completion but it's coming along and with regards specifically typically to Thailand and Cambodia there's already a rail connection to the Border area up at Aranyaprathet, at the border with Poipet, Cambodia, there's already a rail connection between Bangkok and that entrepôt if you will. So I think this is only going one direction in terms of regionally and that is toward economic expansion that is mutually beneficial. That said, quoting further: “The campaign, set to launch by the end of this year, aims to boost regional travel across six Asian Nation: Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam and a sixth country yet to be confirmed." Curious what that sixth country is. Could be Myanmar, not sure, but interesting on that point. That said, quoting further: "As for strengthening economic partnerships Mr. Tull said the Government is encouraging private enterprises to expand investments in Cambodia particularly in agriculture, food processing, and hospitality." Quoting further: "Incentives such as tax exemptions on machinery imports and extended investment benefits are offered to Thai companies considering expansion in Cambodia, he said." 

Sometime ago we did a video talking about a bilateral agreement between Cambodia and Thailand that I talked about in many different contexts but there are benefits that could be had by those who have incorporated or own or maintain a Thai company and looking to do business in the region, there are benefits to be had by doing business in Cambodia pursuant to these bilateral arrangements. And I'm not going to get too deep into this part but for example Americans who have bilateral benefit through the US-Thai Treaty of Amity here in Thailand, may be able to indirectly benefit from those relations between Thailand and Cambodia as well. So there are a lot of different permutations, a lot of different facets to this whole notion of more integrated collaboration here in mainland Southeast Asia and how that can benefit everyone in an economic sense. 

That said, quoting further: "For all of these endeavours, the media is seen as a key tool to strengthen public perceptions between Thailand and Cambodia. He stressed the importance of responsible journalism in promoting positive narratives and fostering understanding." Yeah, I wanted to put that quote directly in there even though it doesn't quite go to the economic stuff we are talking about because you have to kind of understand this in a broader context. Over the years, there have been these little, I don't know what you want to call them, quarrels or something, I don't know the right word, but issues along the border between Thailand and Cambodia. When you know the history, it goes back into the old colonial era and all the baggage for lack of a better term that comes along with that, and frankly I think that there are those out there and maybe, not pointing fingers at anybody specifically, it's just journalism is what it is, and people need clicks and sensationalism drives clicks and brings eyeballs onto news and sometimes controversy or conflict can sort of drive sensationalism, especially where it's not particularly warranted. There is no great animosity between the Khmers and the Thais. They have a history of being very friendly neighbours but at the end of the day, there has been some recent news and it is a little bit opaque as to what exactly happened but there was some, a little bit for lack of a better term, the incident along the border recently in Cambodia and it was kind of getting stirred up if you will in the press as being some kind of major conflict. Well sorry to disappoint everybody, but if you read this article and I urge those who are watching this video go check out that article in detail, it goes into a lot more detail about some of this collaboration and how this can benefit everybody out here this region especially mutually beneficial between Cambodia and Thailand. 

But the point I am trying to make is yeah, there's not some brewing hostility between the Khmers and the Thais. If anything, there's a brewing desire to do business. That is what there is a brewing desire to do out here. There's a brewing desire; I think they go in that article talking about cassava and mangos and the Cambodians are looking for more avenues of refining those kind of agricultural products. Meanwhile, they were talking about tax exemptions for machinery coming out of Thailand. That can only benefit Thailand's industrial base, and it can only benefit Cambodia as Cambodia continues to develop and possibly even heavily industrialize in the near future. Again, it's like the song, I keep thinking of that movie LA Confidential, the end of the movie has that song, "you have got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative." That's I think what we should be looking to do, and it looks to me like officials in Cambodia as well as here in Thailand are looking to do just that and I am very, very optimistic that these kind of developments can benefit everyone here in Thailand, everyone in Cambodia and hopefully everyone in mainland Southeast Asia and beyond.