BoI makes inroads into India with roadshow
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THE Board of Investment welcomes Indian investment in the Kingdom while extending incentives to Thai investors to reciprocate.
During “Thailand: Gateway to the Asean” roadshow last week, Ajarin Pattanapanchai, a senior executive adviser to the BoI, pointed out that Thailand is at the geographical centre of Southeast Asia and can act as a regional gateway for India.
Highways are currently being constructed to facilitate inland transportation routes connecting Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia through Thailand to Myanmar and south to Malaysia and Singapore.
Ajarin was speaking during an event in Mumbai organised by the Commerce and Tourism ministries aimed at promoting bilateral trade, tourism and investment.
Two other sub-sessions were organised by Commerce Minister General Chatchai Sarikulya and Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavarangkul in the first joint presence of Thai ministers in India.
Attending the three sessions were executives from the Thailand Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Thai Industry.
The BoI offers investors up to eight years of corporate tax exemptions for qualifying activities. Promoted projects are given either activity-based incentives or merit-based incentives. And, from the beginning of the year, the BoI has been implementing its new promotion policy.
“We now focus on industries that contribute to our competitiveness through such means as high value-added production, adoption of high technology and efficiency, green technologies, and particularly research and development,” Ajarin said during the event.
The BoI had received applications from India for 92 projects valued at US$970 million over the past five years. Last year, 22 projects were implemented with a combined value of $77 million. The BoI is looking forward to receiving an increment to those figures in the years to come.
To encourage Thai companies to invest in India, the BoI has been supplying information and will now increase this effort, although Thai investment in India was only about $184 million, ranking Thailand 35th among foreign direct investment to India over the past 15 years.
With the support of the Indian government, along with the “Make in India” policy, the BoI was able to make that amount grow in the near future.
“Make in India” is an initiative of the government of India to encourage companies to invest in manufacturing in India. The campaign was launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last September.
