Investment project applications in the first three quarters of this year increased by 4% year on year, to 2,195 projects worth an estimated 722.5 billion baht.
Narit Therdsteerasukdi, secretary-general of the Board of Investment (BoI), said that this the highest in ten years, reflecting Thailand’s improving economic potential and fundamentals, as well as increased foreign investor confidence in the government’s support for foreign investment in electric vehicles and spare parts, circular energy and semiconductors and circuit boards.
File photo : Narit Therdsteerasukdi
The top five industries making project applications are electronics and electrical appliances (183. 4 billion baht), digital investments (94 billion baht), EVs and spare parts (67.8 billion baht), agriculture and processed food (52.9 billion baht) and petrochemicals and chemical products (34 billion baht).
Narit said that a large proportion of the foreign investment is geared towards hi-tech industries, which are key to Thailand’s economic restructuring. This includes eight data centre projects, with 92.7 billion baht in projected investments, as well as hi-tech electronic products, electric circuit boards, smart electronic products and precision machinery.
As far as foreign direct investment (FDI) is concerned, he said that investment applications from Singapore came top at 180 billion baht, followed by China’s 114 billion baht, Hong Kong’s 68 billion baht, 44 billion baht from Taiwan and 35 billion baht from Japan.
FDI for the 9-month period accounted for 66% of all investment applications, or 546 billion baht, representing an increase of 38% over the same period last year.
Most of the investment is concentrated in the eastern region (~408 billion baht), followed by the central region (~220 billion baht), the northern region (~35 billion baht), the southern region (~25 billion baht) and 23 billion baht in the north-eastern region.
Altogether, 2,072 investment applications have been approved with an estimated investment total of 672 billion baht.
Narit said that all these investment project applications, if realised, would create about 170,000 jobs in Thailand, use locally produced raw materials worth about 800 billion baht and increase Thailand’s export value by two trillion baht annually.
