Thai business operators urged to invest in neighboring countries

BANGKOK, August 17 (TNA) - The Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) promotes and supports Thai business operators to invest in neighboring countries in the ASEAN Community (AC). BOI Secretary-General Hirunya Suchinai announced the policy at a seminar, entitled "Thailand Overseas Investment Forum 2017", organized in Bangkok on August 16. Hirunya said that to meet the Thailand 4.0 policy, the government is generating the national economic growth through innovations and advanced technologies, as well as promoting local business operators to particularly invest in six ASEAN neighboring countries, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam. Hirunya revealed that BOI plans to open new branch offices in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, and in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, by next year, after which BOI officials will work together with the Thailand Teams in the neighboring countries to promote and support expanding Thai investment projects there, while BOI also plans to open a new mobile unit in Myanmar for the same purpose. The BOI chief pointed out that Thai investment projects relocating to the neighboring countries will benefit from cheaper wages and other production and operational costs, namely raw materials and energy. BOI Deputy Secretary-General Chokdee Kaewsang quoted the data of the Bank of Thailand (BOI) as saying, meanwhile, that Thailand's intra-regional investment projects in AC last year stood at about 874.19 billion baht, or about 29 per cent of overall Thai investment values overseas, most of which were in the food and drink, retail, wholesale, financial and insurance sectors in Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Lao PDR. According to the BOI deputy chief, Thailand's investment projects overseas reached 13.23 billion US dollars or 463.02 billion baht last year, most of which were in Singapore, Japan, the United States, China and Hong Kong. (TNA)