Imagine pouring all the profits from your business into a high-end hotel in a foreign country. The business is going well. Then overnight, your beautiful hotel is destroyed by arson. As a businessperson, do you dare start over again? Staring at the ruins, you might feel there’s no hope for the future.
Supachai Verapuchong felt nothing. He resolved calmly to start over, and quickly. A new hotel would rise in Cambodia. His other damaged businesses — pharmaceutical trading and a TV station — would be revived as well, and even more investments would follow, including a golf course in Siem Reap and a new three-star hotel in Phnom Penh.
A devout Buddhist and lifelong student of dhamma, Supachai harbours no bitterness toward those who destroyed what he built up a decade ago. As deputy managing director of Thai Nakorn Patana, and managing director of the Phokeethra Group, he remains just as committed today to creating opportunities in Cambodia as he was when he first entered the country.
Founded by Supachai’s father, Vinai Verapuchong, Thai Nakorn Patana has been known in Thailand for decades as the manufacturer of best-selling medicine brands including Tiffy cold remedy, Sara paracetamol, and Antacil antacid. Supachai initiated the idea to expand the family business in neighbouring countries. Between 1991 and 1993, he oversaw the establishment of representative offices in four countries: Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
With a bachelor’s degree in economics from Thammasat University, Supachai had developed a keen interest and deep understanding of the politics of the sub-region, and he wanted to be part of the new developments that were taking shape.
The early 1990s were a turbulent time for Cambodia, which was just beginning to emerge from the nightmare of the murderous Khmer Rouge and subsequent occupation by Vietnam. For Vietnam and Laos, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the decline of communism were about to bring economic changes. While Vietnam remained nominally communist, it embarked on developing a market economy. Laos has followed cautiously in recent years.
For adventurous and far-sighted Thai businessmen, the 1990s were about opportunity, and today those opportunities are greater than ever, in Supachai’s view.
“I think that the worst time in the sub-region has passed. From now on, [all countries] will focus on trade. Besides, the formation of the Asean Economic Community has started to be addressed,” he said. “So, the future is here. If we entered first, we would get more benefit.”
Supachai led his company to invest in all four countries when few other foreign investors were willing to make commitments. He focused on maintaining good attitudes and building good relationships, and the effort has gradually paid off.
In 1993, only two years after entering Cambodia, he set up Phokeethra Group as a property investment arm. It was also the first time that the Thai
medicine manufacturer had diversified. He invested in building the Royal Phnom Penh hotel in 1993 and the Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Gold and Spa Resort in 1996.
The hotel business was doing well before the nightmare came. The trouble began when a Cambodian newspaper inflamed local sentiment by misquoting a Thai actress — deliberately, it was later revealed — as saying that Angkor Wat belonged to Cambodia.
Enraged protesters took to the streets of Phnom Penh on the night of Jan 29, 2003 and set the Thai Embassy on fire. The riots spread to other Thai-owned properties, including the Royal Phnom Penh Hotel, which was only one kilometre from the embassy. Also destroyed were Thai Nakorn Patana’s medicine inventory and a TV station, for which the company had won a 30-year concession from the Cambodian Ministry of Defence.
“We knew in advance that a serious riot might happen,” Supachai recalled. “Frankly speaking, I felt nothing. I was not angry at the rioters. I thought that instead of burning the hotel and the medicines, they should keep the medicines for their use.
“If I were them (Cambodian people), and I had heard the rumour, I might have done what they did.”
In his darkest hour, Supachai thought about the teachings of Lord Buddha. Whatever happened, he told himself, would end as well. Nothing is permanent. He felt no anger and simply viewed the Cambodians as Buddhism friends.
“There are five countries in the world that follow Theravada Buddhism, and four of them are clustered here — Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. We have the same father; that is the Lord Buddha. No matter what nationality we are, we speak the same language under the Buddhist religion.”
After the nightmare passed, the Cambodian government committed to compensating Thai businesses for all damages via tax rebates, and it revised the land lease period for the hotel location.
To show that Phokeethra Group was still confident about staying in Cambodia, the company in 2004 built a golf course in Siem Reap, which opened in 2006. At ground zero, it rebuilt the hotel in 2005, upgrading it to a five-star property and renaming it the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra. The new hotel was opened in 2011.
Asked why such a serious situation could not let him down, Supachai said that his family had always taught everyone to be ready for any problems.
Supachai has applied dhamma to whatever he does in life and business. He has been ordained in the monkhood twice, the first time for 45 days at Wat Chonprathan Rangsarit in Nonthaburi around 25 years ago, and the second time six years ago in India.
“Problems bring wisdom. Every crisis is an opportunity. This is what we were taught in our family. When we were students, we were asked many questions. Those are problems. So, we have learned to solve problems since we were young. Why do we have to be afraid of problems?”