World Bank urges Thailand to reform business laws before B-READY

The World Bank has urged Thailand to accelerate reforms to key labour and business laws and regulations ahead of the 2026 Business Ready (B-READY) assessment, highlighting several areas where improvements are needed to meet international standards. 

A source at the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission (OPDC) said the agency had recently held bilateral technical discussions with World Bank experts. More than 150 representatives from relevant agencies joined the session to hear explanations and raise questions about the methodology to be used in Thailand’s B-READY assessment this year.

The discussions identified several areas where Thailand should move quickly to improve its laws and regulations. One key issue was labour protection, including the need for annual leave to be established by law as a right of no fewer than 15 working days, excluding sick leave and public holidays.

The meeting also discussed protections against discrimination, violence, harassment and bullying in the workplace. These protections, World Bank experts noted, should be supported by legally enforceable complaint mechanisms or internal organisational measures.

On night work, the meeting found that allowing employees to work at night can help employers hire staff in line with business needs while also protecting workers’ rights and benefits.

However, Thailand would need a law requiring additional compensation for night work on top of normal wages. This would help protect employees working outside standard hours, which can affect their health and social life.

The meeting also discussed business entry requirements. Thailand was advised to develop laws requiring companies to disclose beneficial ownership information during the business registration process. If beneficial ownership, or BO, data is kept only for internal use by state agencies and is not made public, Thailand would not receive points for that criterion.

In Thailand’s case, measures requiring banks to collect BO information through Know Your Customer and Customer Due Diligence procedures could help the country receive partial points under the financial services category.

Another issue was paid-in minimum capital, meaning capital that the law requires to be paid or deposited into a company either before or after business registration. If the required amount is more than zero baht, it is considered a restriction on starting a business.

On international trade, the discussions covered environmental criteria for transport services. To receive full points, laws must support international environmental standards for transport, such as fuel standards and carbon emissions requirements, across maritime, air and land transport.

However, the World Bank focuses its assessment only on non-tariff measures, or NTMs, that act as trade restrictions and increase costs for traders. Even quotas or price controls on goods introduced in the national interest, such as safety, security, environmental protection or consumer protection, may not meet B-READY criteria.

The World Bank currently uses binary scoring, which may not yet clearly assess the quality of NTMs. It is considering changes to its scoring method in the coming year.

On dispute resolution, the meeting reviewed the issue of automated random case assignment, which will be assessed only for commercial cases in courts of first instance. The system must be fully automated and free from interference.

If specialist judges are required, courts may set the random assignment system to select from groups of judges with specific expertise. A dedicated court or specialised division within a court can also be counted as a specialist court, provided it deals only with commercial cases.

The meeting also addressed market competition, including criteria related to the recognition of intellectual property ownership for works created by artificial intelligence.

At present, there is still no clear international standard, with all countries still developing their own approaches. Thailand was advised to study practices in the European Union and among EU member states.

In summary, B-READY does not specify what proportion of AI use in a work would determine ownership. The World Bank is still collecting information from countries to refine this indicator in the future. Thailand has therefore been encouraged to study the issue and prepare a legal framework for intellectual property ownership in AI-generated works.