In thefirst 11 month of 2012, many Thai entrepreneurs moved their capitaloverseas to start new production bases, invest in stocks and bonds, andtake over foreign enterprises. The capital outflow was recorded at over18 billion USD, a bit more than 550 billion THB; much higher than thatof 2011, which was worth only 8.5 billion USD, or 254 billion THB. Theincrease accounted for 116 percent rise year-on-year, according to theBoT.
The Central Bank further revealed that therelocation of Thai enterprises’ production bases was aimed at reducingproduction costs and avoiding the adverse impact of the 300 THB-minimumwage policy, which took effect nationwide on January 1, 2013. Inaddition, the production base relocation was a good move for the Thaicompanies in order to gear themselves up for the ASEAN EconomicCommunity, scheduled to be formed on December 31st, 2015.
On the other hand, last year's capital inflow was considerably low whencompared with the outflow, as Thailand saw only 8.4 billion USD, around254 billion THB, in foreign direct investment or FDI.-VNA