Foreign investment applications surge 70 pct in Thailand in H1

Foreign investment applications to Thailand between January and June surged 70 percent in value from a year earlier, as global companies continued to favor the Southeast Asian country as their production base, a government investment agency said on Monday.
 

In the first half of this year, applications for investment promotion amounted to 364.4 billion baht (10.37 billion U.S. dollars), driven by foreign direct investments (FDI) mainly in the electronics, food, and automotive sectors, which rose 141 percent year-on-year to 304 billion baht (8.65 billion dollars), according to the Board of Investment (BOI).

China was the largest source of FDI, with applications worth 61.5 billion baht (1.74 billion dollars), followed by Singapore and Japan, the BOI said in a statement.

Foreign investment continued to increase at a very high rate, especially in electronics and electric vehicles (EV), which are among Thailand's priority sectors, said Secretary General of the BOI Narit Therdsteerasukdi.

"This reflects foreign investors' confidence in Thailand's fundamentals, well-developed infrastructure and strong supply chain," he added.

In the January-June period, the automotive sector saw 80 investment applications totaling 19.6 billion baht (556.8 million dollars), with the majority of projects involving parts production and EV charging stations, the BOI said.

According to the BOI, the government's end-to-end EV promotion policy has effectively drawn investment from world-leading manufacturers and positioned Thailand as Southeast Asia's hub for EV manufacturing.

So far, 14 battery electric vehicle (BEV) manufacturers have been granted investment promotion benefits, including projects by China's BYD Auto, Great Wall Motor and SAIC, the BOI said.

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