Thailand's FDI soars in Jan-Feb 2013

BANGKOK, March 25 (TNA) - Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Thailand soared to 83.8 billion baht in the first two months of this year, with Japanese business operators maintaining the lion's share. Udom Wongviwatchai, Secretary-General of the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI), assessed on Monday that Thailand's FDI should, therefore, reach 130 billion baht in the first quarter of this year. If investment projects of Thai business operators who seek the BOI's promotional privileges are included, Udom acknowledged, Thailand's FDI should amount to 200 billion baht in the first quarter of this year, comparable with the corresponding period of last year. According to the BOI chief, about half of the Thai FDI in the January-February 2013 period came from Japanese investors who were mostly expanding their automobile production in Thailand, where the overall automobile production capacity is expected to rise to 3 million units annually in the near future. Over the past 42 years, Japanese business operators have invested in 7,302 investment projects in Thailand, totally worth 2.7 trillion baht. But this year, Malaysia is increasing its investment in Thailand in the aviation and agricultural sectors, so are South Korea and Taiwan, as the businesses from Japan and several other countries are raising their investment in Thailand, considered a business center in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in the lead up to the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), set to be formed by 2015. Meanwhile, Industry Minister Prasert Boonchaisuk said that he has ordered the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand or IEAT to open more industrial estates for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country's northern, northeastern, central and southern regions. (TNA)