The scope of an International Business Center (IBC)

        An International Business Center (IBC) is a company established under Thai law to provide management services, technical services, support services, or financial management services to affiliated enterprises or international trade operations. 

An IBC business consists of numerous facets, as described below.

1. General Administration, Business Planning, and Business Coordination

• General administration tasks include managing and solving problems, supervising the preparation of various documents to meet the parent company’s standards, setting budgets, preparing annual reports, scheduling and organizing annual meetings, and so on;
• Accounting, such as making accounts or registering accounts in the affiliates’ systems, etc. (excluding auditing and certifying financial statements), legal matters such as drafting contracts, reviewing legal contracts, providing advice on legal requirements for applying for various licenses, and examining and preparing documents for applying for various licenses, etc. are examples of Shared Services provided to affiliates and group companies (not including prosecutions);
• Business planning such as consulting, investment planning, and preparing business plans in the ASEAN region for the parent company, etc.;
• Business coordination, such as coordination between affiliates and groups to organize meetings, coordination between affiliates and customers of affiliates to facilitate various aspects, etc.

2. Procurement of Raw Materials and Components

• Providing procurement services by collecting and preparing information such as a list of manufacturers, a list of products, prices, specifications, and quality, and so on, for comparison and compiling information as a summary report for affiliates and group companies;
• It only serves to provide information, so it excludes brokerages and dealerships, as well as the purchase and sale of goods.

3. Product Research and Development

• Providing research and development services for a variety of products, such as research and development of automotive parts and suspension systems for new cars for production plants, or research and development of manufacturing processes and raw material selection to produce quality products, and so on;
• For consideration, applicants for promotion must submit information about product research and development, such as research procedures, research scope, research machinery and equipment, and research personnel, among other things.

4. Technical Support

• Providing technical advice on topics such as production planning in each country to maximize benefits, selecting the appropriate software and IT systems for each department, and so on;
• Preparation of technical work manuals, such as safety procedures in the production plant to comply with legal requirements, etc.;
• Examining, testing, and correcting the machine’s operating system in the company’s and group’s manufacturing plants, as well as recommending the machine’s proper use and maintenance;
• Software and IT systems must be designed, installed, tested, maintained, and troubleshooted;
• Civil engineering and architecture-related technical support is not included;
• It excludes technical support provided to affiliates and group companies’ customers, such as machine repair for customers who purchase machines from affiliates, etc.

5. Marketing and Sales Promotion

• Consultation and marketing planning, such as analyzing customer situations or consumer behavior, establishing target groups, developing marketing plans, and developing public relations guidelines for each country’s sales channels, etc.;
• Collecting and storing customer information such as usage issues, satisfaction, and customer suggestions, among other things, in order to evaluate and develop marketing and sales plans in each country of affiliates and group companies;
• Advertising is not included.

6. Personnel Management and Training

• Planning the personnel structure, salary structure, and how to calculate salary for affiliates and in the group;
• Evaluation of performance and calculating employee salary increases;
• Employee or personnel training, such as regulations and work practices and work techniques to develop personnel in each position, etc.;
• It excludes the substitution of or payment of salaries for affiliates and group companies, as well as the employment of affiliates and group companies.

7. Financial Consulting

• Financial management of affiliates and group companies, investment planning in various parts to manage financial risks, auditing, and improving financial agreements, and so on.

8. Economic and Investment Analysis and Research

• Analysis of the direction of investment in each industry of each country, for example, analyzing the trend of investment in the service industry in Thailand and other ASEAN countries, etc.;
• Preparation of a summary report for future investment decisions in each of the affiliated companies’ and the group’s businesses.

9. Credit Management and Control

• Procurement of credit information from various borrowing sources and preparing detailed summary reports, such as a list of borrowing sources, credit limits, and interest rates, etc.;
• Controlling disbursements according to credit limits, reminding of contractual repayments, and guaranteeing affiliate and group loan debts to lender banks;
• Examination and preparation of documents of affiliates and group companies in requesting loans from loan sources.

10. Treasury Center*

• Purchasing obligations or billing documents for international goods or services in foreign currencies from group companies (Re-Invoicing) or acting as an agent for the group of companies in receiving money according to billing documents for goods or services or payment obligations for international goods or services in foreign currency (Agent);
• Netting of income or obligations (Netting);
• Buying, selling, or exchanging foreign currencies and managing foreign exchange risk;
• Liquidity management.

11. International Trade Affairs

Purchasing products, parts, and raw materials for various industries must be done on a wholesale basis if they are to be sold in the country (May not sell to end-users);

• Examples of purchasing and selling routes: OUT-IN, IN-IN, IN-OUT, OUT-OUT and OUT-IN-OUT;
• Must be purchased or sold overseas together with  (May not do only IN-IN or internal trade only);
• May buy and sell products to other customers who are not affiliated companies or in the group.

12. Lending money to affiliated enterprises in a way that does not fall within the scope of the Treasury Center’s treasury management services business and is permissible under the Exchange Control Laws.

• Foreign currency lending to affiliated enterprises abroad;
• Thai baht lending to affiliated enterprises in Thailand;
• Thai baht lending to enterprises in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and neighboring countries, where the borrowing business must be used solely for trade or investment in Thailand or such countries.

        Incidentally, affiliated enterprises are corporations or legal partnerships that have a relationship with the International Business Center or own shares in the IBC, either directly or indirectly, accounting for at least 25% of the total capital.