The Thai Department of Business Development in August gave permission to 14 foreign companies to conduct businesses in the country, increasing by 6 percent over the same period last year.

The total investment value of the permitted projects might reach 1.2 billion THB and their businesses employ about 343 Thai collectively.

The number of foreign businesses approved by the department during this year now stands at 261, up 10 percent year on year and with a total investment of 14.2 billion THB.

Thailand's economy can grow more than 5 percent next year if the country can speed up public investment, trade expansion with ASEAN and Asia as well as boost human resource development, according to the Bangkok Post newspaper.-VNA