BoI eyes Bt1.5 tn in actual investments
THE BOARD OF INVESTMENT (BOI) is conservatively forecasting that the total value of actual investments under its tax-incentive support will reach at least Bt1 trillion during the three years to 2019, but secretary-general Hirunya Suchinai said yesterday that the board was confident of hitting Bt1.5 trillion.
Actual investment in projects under BOI support since 2014 as of the first quarter of this year amounted to more than Bt1.7 trillion.
Actual investment from 2016 to the first quarter this year was more than Bt570 billion.
Hirunya said the projects approved by the BOI last year were expected to add more than 140,000 jobs and also result in the use of local raw materials worth Bt700 billion per year. The projects used an estimated 1.3 million tonnes of domestic rubber last year, accounting for 30 per cent of the country’s total rubber production.
In the first quarter of this year 293 projects worth Bt61.980 billion applied for BOI privileges, of which 182 projects worth Bt42.452 billion were new.
The remaining 111 projects worth Bt19.528 billion were expansions of existing projects.
The BOI has targeted investment applications worth Bt600 billion this year.
Of the 293 projects proposed in the first quarter, Japanese investors topped the applicant numbers, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore.
The value of the approved projects during the first three months of this year is Bt239 billion.
Recent investments under BOI support in the targeted high-tech industries include those of Bangkok Stem Cell Research and Development Co, INSEE Digital Company and Thai Electric Vehicle Company.
Hirunya said the BOI was in talks with a Japanese high-tech company to lure it to invest in Thailand. This company uses agricultural raw materials to make a special substance that is many times stronger than iron and can be applied in many sectors. However, she declined to elaborate.
In the first quarter of this year BOI met with 124 investors from eight countries who were interested in many sectors in Thailand and its Eastern Economic Corridor.
From this month through September the BOI will conduct 21 roadshows to woo investment from targeted countries and regions such as China, Japan, India, South Korea, the United States, the European Union and Australia.
