According to the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI), the value of investment incentive applications submitted to the Thailand Board of Investment from January to February 2012 soared by 133 percent year-on-year, indicating strong investment trend in the country. The increasing foreign investment trend also reflected investor confidence in Thailand and its potential as a destination for growing business opportunities.
Strong 2-month statistics confirms high investor confidence
Total investment value of applications submitted to the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) during the first two months of 2012 achieved a record growth of 133 percent from Bt66.1 billion in 2011 to Bt154.2 billion this year. The number of investment applications grew by 14.5 percent from last year’s 242 projects to 277 projects in 2012.
The largest investments were in the chemicals, paper and plastics industry, with 54 projects and a total investment value of Bt64 billion. The second largest recipient sector in terms of investment value was service and public utilities, with 52 projects applying for the BOI incentives and Bt32 billion in investments. The industry that ranked third was electronics and electrical appliances. In this industry, there were 57 projects with a total investment value of Bt25.6 billion applying for promotional incentives.
Strong Foreign direct investment Trend
Foreign direct investment showed a similar, positive trend. The BOI revealed that there were up to 188 projects with an aggregated investment value of Bt82.202 billion applying for the BOI incentives. The number of applications increased by 30.5 percent (from 144 projects in 2011) while total investment value grew significantly by 91.7 percent (from Bt42.868 billion in 2011).
The industry that attracted the greatest interest from foreign investors was electronics and electrical appliances, which saw applications for 47 projects with a total investment value of Bt25.508 billion. The second top industry was chemicals, paper and plastics, with 36 projects applying for the incentives and a Bt18.695 billion investment value. The industry ranking third for FDI was metal, machinery, motor vehicles and auto parts. There were 53 projects with a total investment value of Bt14.275 billion.
Japan remained the largest foreign investor in Thailand
The majority of these FDI projects were expansions of the existing foreign investments in Thailand. This included investment for 114 expansion projects with a total investment value of Bt55.478 billion. On the other hand, there were 74 new projects by companies that had never invested in Thailand before, with a total investment value of Bt26.724 billion.
Japan remained the largest foreign investor in Thailand, with 101 projects and a combined investment value of Bt38.253 billion. In second place was the United States, with 10 projects and Bt8.162 billion in investment value. The Netherlands came third with five projects and a total investment value of Bt6.653 billion. Singapore and Switzerland were the fourth and the fifth, with 14 projects and four projects, respectively. The total investment values of these countries was Bt3.228 billion and Bt2.555 billion, respectively.
