Thailand welcomes investment relocation from China, Japan

The Thai government has ordered the Board of Investment (BoI) to actively attract foreign investors who plan to move out of China, especially Japanese ones hit by the US – China trade war.
Thailand welcomes investment relocation from China, Japan ảnh 1Illustrative image (Source: bangkokpost)
Hanoi (VNA) – The Thai government has ordered theBoard of Investment (BoI) to actively attract foreign investors who plan tomove out of China, especially Japanese ones hit by the US – China trade war.

The Bangkok Post on June 3 quoted Thai Deputy Prime MinisterSomkid Jatuspripitak as saying that high-techindustries like IT and electronics are likely to move out of China amid theheightened trade row between China and the US.

He said the BoI has also been instructed to improve investmentpolicies to promote investment in business community, adding that existingperks are not attractive enough to lure large companies.

Last month, Secretary General of the Thai National Economic and Social Development Council(NESDC) Thosaporn Sirisamphand urged the government to come up withspecial investment packages to encourage foreign firms affected by the tradewar to relocate to Thailand. 

The investment policies should be attractive enoughto entice them to choose Thailand as a base, not solely for factory relocationbut also for production capacity expansion, he said.

An NESDC study found that the trade squabblesbetween the US and China since 2018 have led various factories to considerrelocating their production bases to other countries. 

According to him, the trade war is likely tochange the production base of the world for electronics products from China toSoutheast Asia. The relocation would become especially visible in the latterhalf of this year when the trade war is expected to become heightened. 

The latest report by the BoI showed that foreigndirect investment (FDI) in Thailand amounted to 104.88 billion baht (3.3billion USD) in the first four months of this year, up from 36.5 billion bahtfrom the same period last year.

Japan still ranked first in terms of FDI, with30.7 billion baht for the period, up from 14.6 billion baht in the same periodlast year. 

Switzerland came second, with 11.1 billion baht,up from 5 billion, followed by China at 9.39 billion, up from 3.11 billion,Singapore at 6.2 billion, up from 5.6 billion, and Hong Kong at 3.69billion.-VNA


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