Thai Foreign Investment Incentives Placed in the Spotlight

The government has pledged to speed up incentives and other measures aimed at promoting Thai investment abroad.

"We will accelerate drafting new measures including tax holidays and facilities to provide services to Thais investing abroad," Industry Minister M.R. Pongsvas Svasti told a seminar in Bangkok yesterday.

He admitted raising the daily minimum wage to 300 baht will probably be the main factor prompting Thai investors to look elsewhere.Thai entrepreneurs are starting to expand to fast-growing Asian economies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to enjoy lower wages and lower production costs, said M.R. Pongsvas.

He pointed out Thai entrepreneurs hold a competitive edge over other Asean countries in the construction, automobile, electronics, food processing, textile, fishery, rubber and healthcare sectors.

Atchaka Sibunruang, secretary-general of the Board of Investment (BoI), said the board is collecting requests and proposals from Thai investors and will discuss the matter next week.

Summit Auto Body Industry Co (SAB), a large local auto parts producer and a unit of the Summit Group, proposed the government create an agency to oversee and facilitate Thai investment in each country, similar to the Japanese government placing a representative house in every country where its entrepreneurs invest.

For instance, in 2006 the Japanese government allowed the Ota City Industrial Promotion Organization to cooperate with Amata Corporation to develop and complete Ota Techno Park, an aggregate factory for SMEs from Ota City in Chon Buri's Amata Nakorn Industrial Estate.

Ota Techno Park offers a wide range of services including company registration, BoI application, tax registration, land-use applications, financial services, tax and legal-compliance services and accounting services.

Kornkrit Jurangkool, SAB's managing director, said the company has expanded its auto body production facilities in China, India and Vietnam in recent years to tap into fast-growing demand market.