More foreigners given green light to run businesses in Thailand

BANGKOK, July 20 (TNA) - The Ministry of Commerce's Foreign Business Committee has approved 242 foreign parties to run businesses in Thailand during the first seven months of this year, with their combined investment fund of about 8.59 billion baht. Pongpun Gearaviriyapun, Director-General of the ministry's Department of Business Development and secretary to the committee, told journalists of the update on Monday, saying that the figure increases by 17 parties or 8 per cent year-on-year. Pongpun revealed that 35 foreign parties were approved to run their businesses in Thailand this month alone with their combined investment fund of more than 580 million baht and 385 Thai people employed. The senior official noted that most of the permitted foreign businesses deal with services for business groups and industries, as well as representative offices. According to the senior official, most of the permitted foreign business parties are from Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, China, India, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Australia and Denmark. (TNA)