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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing whether or not Cambodia and Thailand are kind of competing for retirees. I got to thinking of this when I was reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: The Thai and Cambodian golden expat visas now look to be very different. Quoting directly: "The Authorities in both Thailand and Cambodia are keen to attract rich executives, experts, entrepreneurs, the idle rich and even retirees provided they are willing to invest mega cash on an ongoing basis. The Thai rules for a Long-Term Visa (LTR) vary somewhat according to category, but anyone with less than 1 million US dollars or equivalent, to spare is unlikely to survive the qualifying rules. The scheme is fronted by Thailand's business-orientated Board of Investment. CM2H (that is Cambodia my second home) CM2H specifically mentions a cash investment of US$100,000 although it appears that registration charges of several kinds might almost double that figure." 

Yeah interesting stuff. I mean obviously they are talking about this in the context of high net worth retirees. Cambodia in recent years it is my understanding did introduce a Retirement Visa. It is quite a bit more nebulous process to deal with compared to Thailand. Yeah I know a number of people in Cambodia over the years that have chosen to retire there and they kind of split their time throughout the region and they prefer to kind of headquarter in Cambodia specifically Phnom Penh often times. Comparing Thailand to Cambodia in a retirement context, I think it is kind of hard to do because the two places are not fully analogous, there are a lot of differences. Many retirees I have talked to over the years cite infrastructure as being a major concern they have with respect to choosing Thailand oftentimes over Cambodia. Now that may change over time but for now I don't necessarily think Thailand really has to worry greatly about attracting more retirees but other countries, Cambodia might not be the last one to start looking for retirees and we could see other countries that create benefits for retirees in the Southeast Asian region that could make people think twice about Thailand.

I think long-term, look I have my own bias. My personal opinion is Thailand is great; I think it's the optimal place to retire to for Western retirees for a number of different reasons most notably things like price, again infrastructure, these are all things to keep in mind when looking at retirement options here in Southeast Asia but I do have a bias I do get that. Long story short it's going to be interesting to watch to see if Cambodia and Thailand do kind of end up in a sort of "competition" for retirees in the region.