As in any business community connections in the right places and with the right people is essential for success. Bangkok is a great place for meeting potential business colleagues and creating partnerships. But it does need a little homework.

There are two distinct areas in Thai business circles. One is the Thai company which manufactures a product or provides a service. A visiting business person may want to tie up some joint ventures whilst in the city, and to help in this area the various country trade departments of the Embassies are very helpful.

As an example the Department of Trade at the British Embassy can put you in touch with a range of potential partners to match your ideas. Once a link has been established its surprising how the contacts develop since Thai business is often kept within groups of ‘friends’ who all know each other well.

Once in that circle, the foreign business person can draw on this pool of connections. There are networking meetings and gatherings of all sorts held in Bangkok, with the Australian, British, American and Canadian Embassies very active. Equally there are privately run networking groups where both Thai and foreign business people meet for morning meetings, and discussions.

The other potential business link is with the foreign community living and working in Thailand. The country has one of the highest expatriate communities in Asia, with a wide range of foreign nationals working in property, finance, hotels and restaurants. Meeting expatriate business folk can be pure luck, such as a casual chat in a bar, or it may come from a more formal approach ahead of a visit to Bangkok.