Industrial estates in Thai east announce 10,000 new job openings

BANGKOK, July 9 (TNA) -- Thailand's Amata Nakhon and Amata City industrial estates are set to open 10,000 new job positions this year to welcome more investments in the country's eastern region. Although there is a current trend by large companies in Thailand to reduce the numbers of their employees to cope with the fluctuating economy, such as Toyota Motors, which had sacked between 800-900 employees, and Chevron Thailand, which had lowered than employment by 20 per cent or about 800 employees, starting this coming August 1, many industries in Thailand are hiring more workers, like that of the Amata City Industrial Estate in Rayong province and Amata Nakhon Industrial Estate in Chonburi province, where both have announced a combine number of job openings of 10,000 for 2016. Viboon Kromadit, Amata Coporation Co, Ltd (AMATA) Corporate Marketing Officer and member of the Board of Directors said although the overall national economy has not expanded by much, the companies which had decided to reduce employment have their own reasons for the action. Nonetheless, he said the industrial estates in the Thai eastern region are still in demand among investors, adding that for the first half of the year, AMATA was able to increase its land areas by a total of between 104-108 acres, where the company is expecting an expansion of another 160-200 acres of land by the end of the year. He said more Chinese investors have shown interests in increasing their investments in Thailand. Amata City Industrial Estate has seen an increase of 200 acres of land recently, as more Chinese firms decided to expand their investments there, constructing up to 70-80 new factories in the area. Mr Viboon said both industrial estates would be increasing their hiring by 10,000 positions this year from the previous 30,000-40,000 job openings annually, noting that the industrial estates have never had to reduce the number of employments, though overtime pay might have been lowered recently due to the sluggish economy, though he believes that the economy is showing signs of improvement. Moreover, he ensured that the government's launching of the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) would help to attract another wave of investments into the eastern region of the country, as the region is already equipped with facilities and utilities to cater to demands, as the EEC scheme would also provide support in tax incentives and the increase of facilities, which in turn should draw in more foreign investments to Thailand. (TNA)