Agency nods to 354 foreign businesses in first 10 months
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The Commerce Ministry's Business Development Department has given approval to 354 foreign firms to set up operations in Thailand under the Foreign Business Act (FBA) during the first 10 months of the year worth a total of more than Bt60.14 billion.
The number of approvals is 7 per cent higher than in the same period last year, while the value of initial capital investment increased by Bt44.54 billion.
The department said permitting these foreign companies to conduct service businesses in Thailand would encourage technology transfer and create jobs for Thais.
Pongpun Gearaviriyapun, director-general of the department, said foreign investors were highly interested in setting up businesses in Thailand as the economy begins to recover and politics has stabilised under a military regime.
“With the clear signs of economic recovery, more investment will be seen in the remaining months of the year, as well as through next year. The government will try to facilitate more investment under the government’s policies,” she said.
Thailand also recently announced its intention to attract companies to set up their Asean regional headquarters here, which should draw more foreign investment.
This month alone, 41 firms were approved under the FBA, down by 21 per cent from September, as last month many commercial banks were approved and brought in a huge amount of initial investment capital.
The combined initial capital investment by the firms approved this month is Bt2.06 billion.
Pongpun said the September approvals would create at least 589 new jobs for Thais.
Most of the firms approved this month are related to subsidiary and trading business, retail, consultancy, and agency.
The investors mostly hail from Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands, mainland China, Taiwan and Japan.
