Abstract
Originally known as "Siam", Thailand is situated in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is bordered in the North by Laos and Myanmar (originally Burma), in the east by Cambodia and in the south, by Malaysia. The East coast is bathed by the Gulf of Thailand, and the West coast by the Andaman Sea. The surface of Thailand is almost equivalent to that of France: 514 000 km2. Thailand is a true meeting-point of people, languages and cultures. Today it has around 60 million inhabitants today, among which 75% are Thai, (of whom about 6 million are from Chinese origins), 11% Sino-Thai, 3.5% Malays, several minority groups speaking their own dialect: Khmer, Môn, Vietnamese, Laotian, Indian, Persian, and diverse native mountain tribes from the South of China and Tibet. Thailand is considered as a developed country. It is particularly competitive in the food industry, tourism and electronic products. It also attracts numerous multinational companies which use their Thai subsidiary as base of regional or even worldwide export. Establishing the cultural profile of Thailand will enable us to understand how to behave with Thai people in the everyday life and also in business.
