BOI to promote Kingdom as a centre for subcontracting
WITH THE government’s plan to base the economy more on technology and innovation, the Board of Investment will promote Thailand as the centre of subcontracting industries in Asean and in Asia as a whole, as many foreign investors look to expand businesses in this emerging region.
“With emerging growth of industrial development under the ‘Thailand 4.0’ and ‘Industrial 4.0’ policies to emphasise technological development and innovation, Thailand could become the trading centre for industrial [equipment] and a sourcing centre for high-quality industrial products,” said Wirat Tatsaringkansakul, director of the BOI Unit for Industrial Linkage Development (BUILD).
He said Thailand’s supporting industries were set to grow even further, since many foreign investors were hoping to expand their bases into Asean, particularly Thailand, as the government plans strong infrastructure development, while the Thailand 4.0 policy will facilitate their business growth.
To promote Thailand as the centre of the subcontracting business, the BOI will join forces with the Thai Subcontracting Promotion Association and UBM (Asia) Thailand to organise the “Subcon Thailand” exhibition.
The event aims to create business opportunities for enterprises as well as provide business matching between Thai and global enterprises in the subcontracting trade. Subcon Thailand, Asean’s largest industrial-subcontracting and business-matching event, will take place from May 17-20 at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Bitec) in the capital’s Bang Na district. Besides promoting the automobile and parts, aerospace, and medical-equipment industries, the BOI will this year focus on upgrading the quality of agricultural production, making Thai farmers smart farmers and implementing smart farming platforms.
To promote the development of the agricultural sector, small and medium-sized enterprises will be highlighted. Small farmers will be trained and educated to adopt technology and innovation with their farming, production, and delivery processes. In addition, farmers will be encouraged to adopt new technology to increase their production capacity, reduce production costs, and add value to their products.
At Subcon Thailand 2017, participants will come from various industries, including automobiles and parts, aerospace, electrical appliances, construction and decorative, medical equipment and products, agro-industry, electronics, and manufacturers and services for other supportive industries.
More exhibitors and visitors are expected to visit the event than in previous years. More than 400 industrial-parts makers from Thailand and other countries in Asia will join, while expectations of more than 25,000 buyers from around the world. Wirat said this year’s Subcon Thailand was expected to generate Bt10 billion in cash flow, an increase of about 15 per cent from last year’s Bt8.5 billion. It is expected to match up to 6,000 pairs of business partners under the business-matching activity, while last year 5,216 pairs of business partners were matched.
Later this year, the Commerce Ministry’s International Trade Promotion Department will hold the “Bangkok International Digital Content Festival” to promote the government’s “digital economy” policy. More than 120 businesspeople from around the world will join the event, and are expected to create cash flow worth up to Bt800 million, said Malee Choklumlerd, director-general of the department.
BIDC 2017 is scheduled for March 20-24 under the theme “Digital Wonderland” at Centara Grand at CentralWorld, Bangkok.
