Bangkokpost.com, April 02, 2007

Despite the sea change that taken place over the past few months, foreigners are still interested in investing in the greater Phuket area, which aside from the popular resort island also covers Phangnga and Krabi.
However, foreigners now realise that they are going to need legitimate Thai partners with substantial means, says Bill Barnett, the managing director of C9 Hotelworks.
While technically this has always been the case, there is now expected to be a shift in emphasis toward larger Thai companies making investments in resort destinations. Mr Barnett mentioned the Central group and the listed developer Raimon Land as examples.
Heavyweight foreign investors, says Mr Barnett, are only interested in big Thai corporations and not medium and small ones because they want some muscle proportionate to their investment.

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