Thailand's upper South enjoys booming investment

BANGKOK, October 12 (TNA) - The Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) says that there has been bright investment prospect in the country's upper South since the beginning of this year, as the total amount of investment projects in the region has exceeded 10 billion baht so far. Suvich Churvichien, Director of BOI's Regional Investment and Economic Center 6, which supervises investment in seven provinces of the upper Thai South, confirmed the promising investment prospect in the region today, acknowledging that 48 new investment projects, worth 13.15 billion baht, had been approved promotional privileges from his agency over the first three quarters of 2012. Suvich said the BOI's newly-approved projects have employed 4,013 people, boosting the employment in the country's upper southern region by 80-100 year-on-year, with most projects found to be expanded investment plans in Surat Thani and Krabi provinces and most popular investment projects being those in the local agricultural sector, followed by those in the local service and infrastructure sectors. According to the BOI's senior official, investment projects are likely to further expand in the upper Thai South throughout this year, thanks partly by the government's support, with most active investment expected in Surat Thani, followed by Phuket, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Krabi and Chumphon provinces. The BOI's senior official cautioned, however, that there remain major risk factors which may affect investment in the upper Thai South, namely local economic, political and infrastructure issues. (TNA)