Call for mini industrial parks
The Industry Ministry sees the need for mini industrial parks as foreign SMEs, especially from Japan, have shown strong intentions to expand here.
“I have ordered the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand to seek new industrial estate locations especially for SMEs, which need a small space for their factories, about one rai on average,” Industry Minister MR Pongsawat Sawasdiwat said yesterday. “This is smaller than big manufacturers, which demand large land plots of about 50 rai on average. The IEAT will also discuss with local developers of industrial estates, such as Amata and Hemaraj, about the possibility of selling small sites to local SMEs from Japan,” he said after meeting with Masayuki Matsushita, vice chairman of the Kansai Economic Federation and Panasonic Corporation.
Many small and medium manufacturers from cities in the western region of Japan, such as Osaka and Kobe, had asked about Thailand’s policy to attract foreign investors, particularly from Japan, Pongsawat said.
The SMEs were from various industries such as auto parts, electronic parts and accessories, and moulding equipment, Japanese SMEs are quite ready in terms of both capital and technology to spread their operations to other countries, especially Thailand.
The ministry had informed the Japanese investors about Thailand’s green direction for industrial development, which allows industry to co-exist sustainably with the local community. In the first eight months of this year, Japanese investors had requested privileges from the ministry for 475 projects worth Bt227 billion. This is much higher than last year when only 305 Japanese projects worth Bt92 billion were submitted for investment incentives.
From January-September, 1,583 investment projects worth Bt804 billion applied for promotion by the ministry. The ministry targets about Bt900-billion worth of foreign direct investment requests for the whole of this year.
