US, Europe woes up BOI applications

Next year will see the BOI’s investment promotion plan focusing on future and creative industries, while encouraging more Thai businesses to invest overseas, secretary-general Udom Wongviwat-chai said yesterday.
Foreign investors still have confidence in Thailand despite last year’s devastating floods, he said.
In the first 10 months of this year, applications for investment privileges were worth more than Bt900 billion, above the target of Bt800 billion for the full year. The US and European economic downturns, as well as tensions between China and Japan, are cited for investors’ decisions to relocate their manufacturing bases to the Kingdom.
The BOI expects next year’s investment promotion applications will be worth less than this year’s, as quality will be more in focus than privileges related to zoning. Crea-tive and green industries, alternative energy, tourism, healthcare and logistics centres – the targeted sectors – will be the focus.
Promoting Thai companies to invest overseas is another key policy the BOI will implement more strenuously.
The agency’s board has ap-proved three groups of target countries. The first priority group consists of Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam, with targeted businesses including natural resources, labour-intensive plants, non-GSP (Generalised System of Prefer-ences) businesses and construction materials.
The second priority group comprises other Asean countries. Targeted sectors are tourism and other supporting businesses.
The third group includes other attractive countries and regions such as China, the Middle East, Africa and New Zealand.
Targeted industries in China include automotive, petrochemicals and paper, while those in the Middle East are petrochemicals, oil exploration, restaurants and construction.