Japan tops first-half foreign investment
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Incoming non-portfolio investment reached Bt278.6 billion in the first half of this year, with Japanese projects accounting for 54 per cent of all foreign-owned projects and 66 per cent of foreign direct investment (FDI).
New promotion privileges from the Board of Investment totalled Bt632.7 billion.
Malaysia came second, followed by Hong Kong, Singapore and the Netherlands.
Applications for BOI incentives edged up 6 per cent in project number and jumped 47 per cent in project value.
Deputy Government Spokesman Chalitrat Chandru-beksa said yesterday that in the first six months, applications were submitted for 1,055 projects, up 6 per cent, worth Bt632.7 billion, up 47 per cent.
The Cabinet acknowledged the Industry Ministry’s report for first-half investment promotions, he said.
Service and public-utility in-dustries topped the application list, trailed by metal products, machinery and transport equipment, agriculture and agricul-tural products, and electrical ap-pliances and electronics.
Totally Thai-owned projects and wholly foreign-owned projects amounted to 37 per cent of total projects, while joint ventures accounted for 26 per cent.
About 442 projects worth Bt252.1 billion in investment promotions were concentrated in Zone 2, 273 projects worth Bt154 billion in Zone 3 and 292 projects worth Bt62.6 billion in Zone 1.
According to the “World Investment Report” published in June by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), Thailand’s FDI ranked fourth among Asean countries after Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia last year.
According to an Unctad survey on multinationals early this year, Thailand placed eighth in the world for foreigners’ interest in investment. It was fourth in Asia after China, India and Indonesia.
Thailand was the world’s 17th potential investment location in the future, based on global management-consulting firm AT Kearney’s survey of 302 multinational firms in 28 countries early this year.
The second-largest Southeast Asian economy stood sixth in Asia after China, India, Singapore, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
