The Thailand Board of
Investment (BOI) is working out its road show plan to encourage foreign
investors to invest more in Thailand.
BOI Secretary-General Udom
Wongviwatchai said that a meeting of heads of all 14 BOI overseas offices took
place from 23 to 27 December 2013 to discuss Thailand’s investment promotion in
2014.
Mr. Udom said that the
country’s investment promotion activities must be adjusted in line with the BOI
new investment strategy, which will be implemented in 2015. The new strategy
focuses on the industries in which Thailand has good potential.
These industries include
basic infrastructure and logistics, basic industry, medical devices and
scientific equipment, alternative energy and environmental services, services
that support the industrial sector, advanced core technologies, food and
agricultural processing industry, hospitality and wellness, automotive and
other transport equipment, and electronic and electrical appliances.
Apart from building
confidence among foreign investors, the BOI overseas offices will publicize
Thailand’s new investment policy, which emphasizes promoting knowledge-based
industries and research and development. Thailand still welcomes foreign
investment and the current political situation will not have an impact on the
implementation of the new investment policy.
As for Thailand’s foreign
direct investment, 1,015 foreign investment projects, worth 386.67 billion
baht, sought BOI promotion from January to November 2013.
The BOI Secretary-General
said that BOI would improve services for investors, facilitate their
operations, and create a conducive investment climate to attract quality
investments into the country. For instance, it would coordinate and push for
law and regulation improvement, reduce investment obstacles, and ease
investment problems.
He said that BOI would play
an increasingly important role as a center for providing investment information
and counseling services. It will promote the development of personnel to cope
with the growing industrial sector in Thailand, as well.
More foreign investors are
likely to use Thailand as their investment base for the franchise business upon
the arrival of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015. ASEAN countries stand to
benefit from intra-regional investment activities. Many of them are now in need
of investment to increase their potential growth rates.
Thai overseas investment is
considered necessary to enhance industrial competitiveness, overcome domestic
resource limitations, and seek new business opportunities. At present, the
level of Thai overseas investment is relatively low, when compared with some
countries in the ASEAN region. The BOI overseas offices have been instructed to
help Thai investors explore investment opportunities in foreign countries.
(thailand.prd.go.th)