Thailand is Japan's largest FDI base in AEC

BANGKOK, October 19 (TNA) - Japan's foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) are mostly in Thailand, with their totally-accumulated value reaching 53.56 billion US dollars as of 2016, followed by Singapore at 39.65 billion US dollars. Hiroki Mitsumata, President of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), told journalists of the information on October 18, noting that the value of the Japanese FDI projects in Thailand's manufacturing sectors stood at about 34.13 billion US dollars last year and at about 19.43 billion US dollars in the country's non-manufacturing sectors in the same year. According to the JETRO chief, Japan's FDI projects accounted for 36.2 per cent of the total value of FDI in Thailand in 2016 at 197 billion US dollars, representing the largest proportion of FDI in the Thai economy, followed by 14.8 per cent of Singapore's FDI and 14.3 per cent of Europe's FDI. The JETRO chief revealed that Japan's FDI projects that were approved promotional privileges by the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) reached over 79.63 billion baht in 2016 and at 49.68 billion baht in the first half of 2017. "I believe that there will be more Japanese FDI in Thailand in the near future, both from existing and new Japanese firms in the country, as Japanese leading business delegates expressed their satisfaction with the Thai economy during their visit to the Thai Kingdom last month", said the JETRO president. (TNA)