Thailand on Saturday unveiled plans for film and TV production incentives during an event held in Cannes.
Thailand will offer a 15 percent cash rebate on all in-country production spending beginning in 2017. Every production with a local spend over $1.5 million (50 million baht) will automatically get the 15 percent rebate.
The total can rise to up to 20 percent
Beyond the 15 percent, an additional 3 percent is available if a project hires a Thai actor or actress for the lead role or key Thai production staff. Another 2 percent is available for movies deemed to promote Thai tourism.
“We already had a very good reputation for having some of the best crews and locations in the region,” Kobkarn told THR
General Tanasak Patimapragorn, the country’s deputy prime minister and chairman of the National Film and Video Committee, and Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, Thailand’s minister of tourism and sports, unveiled the incentives, which industry insiders in the country had been hoping for and anticipating for years.
“We are confident that this incentive will make Thailand even more competitive. We hope it will help us attract not just more productions, but also higher quality films.”
Thailand’s natural environment and lively urban scenes make it popular with overseas filmmakers, and the big success of Chinese movie Lost in Thailand in 2013 resulted in a huge rise in the number of Chinese tourists to the country.
Big productions shot in the country in recent years include The Hangover Part II, The Beach, The Impossible and No Escape
Source: Cannes: Thailand Unveils Production Incentives of up to 20 Percent – Hollywood Reporter