BOI told to focus on innovative investments

INVESTMENT next year must focus on innovation to drive economic growth and build the country’s infrastructure in line with the government’s “Thailand 4.0” policy, said PM Office Minister Suvit Maesincee.
He said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who chaired a Board of Investment meeting yesterday, said the BOI had to promote investment that was concerned with developing human resources, industry, small and medium-sized enterprises, infrastructure and technology.
Suvit said the BOI was also studying how to target innovative and high technology to improve the country’s competitiveness. 
One way will be through the Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, which will be set up next quarter. 
The fund will start with Bt10 billion to support targeted industries and innovative projects. 
The first target group will focus on investments from Japan, mainland China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, India and South Korea, he said.
The BOI plans to conduct “Opportunity Thailand” on February 15 to promote investment, hoping to attract up to 2,500 potential investors in the target industries. 
Under its “BOI Plus” policy, the investment agency will be able to provide more incentives for innovative industries, with a focus on the Eastern Economic Corridor and special economic zones. Tax-incentive terms will be nearly doubled from eight years currently to 15 years under the BOI Plus policy. It is hoped that this will take the investment value of new incentive applications to Bt600 billion in 2017, BOI secretary-general Hiranya Suchinai said.
In the first 11 months of this year, new applications to the BOI were valued at Bt500 billion, close to the full-year target of Bt550 billion.
“We are confident of achieving the target by the end of the year,” she said.
The BOI yesterday approved incentives for five new projects with investment value totalling Bt24 billion. They are a steel-cord enterprise worth Bt5.13 billion, Bangkok Synthetics’ investment in petrochemicals (Bt6.85 billion), PTT Global Chemical (Bt2 billion), Nok Scoot (Bt8.76 billion), and Hemaraj Saraburi Industrial Land Co (Bt1.7 billion).