PM claims foreign corporations now more at ease about investing in Thailand

[webfact]

 

Foreign multi-national companies are now less worried about investing in Thailand, except for some legal issues which need to be addressed to facilitate investment, claimed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin upon his return from his four-day visit to the United States, to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

 

He told a news conference today (Sunday) that one of his duties during the visit was to inform world business leaders that Thailand is open and ready to welcome all foreign investors, as he talked about his meetings with executives of Microsoft, Tesla, Google and JP Morgan, during which he asked them to consider investing in Thailand.

 

For instance, he said, he asked Microsoft to invest in developing a regional data centre in Thailand, a project which requires at least US$5 billion in investment, and Tesla to invest in building an electric vehicle assembly plant in the country.

 

Full story: Thai PBS 2023-09-25

 

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[redwood1]

Foreign multi-national companies are now less worried about investing in Thailand,-  Hopewell

 

except for some legal issues which need to be addressed to facilitate investment - Hopewell

 

inform world business leaders that Thailand is open and ready to welcome all foreign investors,- Hopewell

[HappyExpat57]

Well, if he says so, it MUST be true!

[smutcakes]

Really for the large multiationals like Microsoft and Google its not really that risky for them.. they dont need to JV, they can own their own land etc. Beauracratic yes but not to bad and far worse than other countries they operate in. They have the teams, resources and power to work through them comfortably. 

 

Dont know why he is trying to take credit though... Microsoft have been looking to set up a data center here for a couple of years, Google announced 6 months back that they were setting up a Cloud region here and Tesla as a matter of course like all China based Auto manufacturers have been looking at options outside of China so of course Thailand would be high on the options list.

[arick]

He hasn't seen that in the last quarter 271 Chinese banks have defaulted  including the Bank if China . 

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

He told a news conference today (Sunday) that one of his duties during the visit was to inform world business leaders that Thailand is open and ready to welcome all foreign investors, as he talked about his meetings with executives of Microsoft, Tesla, Google and JP Morgan, during which he asked them to consider investing in Thailand.

Please come and bail out our poor country.

[2baht]

Will Hopewell be back? ????

[nobodysfriend]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

one of his duties during the visit was to inform world business leaders that Thailand is open and ready to welcome all foreign investors...

All foreign investors ...?

What about granting land ownership to foreign investors ...?

What about easing the overstay rules ?

Thailand is not a liberal country with a functioning democratic system .

Too many coups as well to be confident in investing here ...?

 

He just wants to paint a picture of Thailand that is not ( yet ) true .

[smutcakes]

38 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

All foreign investors ...?

What about granting land ownership to foreign investors ...?

What about easing the overstay rules ?

Thailand is not a liberal country with a functioning democratic system .

Too many coups as well to be confident in investing here ...?

 

He just wants to paint a picture of Thailand that is not ( yet ) true .

He is speaking about business, not retirees.

 

What about granting land ownership to foreign investors ...?

 

Foreign investors can own land 100% freehold inside designated Industrial zones where most investors want to locate. Other sectors outside industrial can be affected more, but many large corporate can live with 30 year leases- in fact many of them dont want to tie up their capital in land and buildings. Most of the big hotels dont own the land either nor do they really want to. They just operate the hotels.

 

What about easing the overstay rules ?

 

Its completely irrelevant to what he is talking about for business.

 

Thailand is not a liberal country with a functioning democratic system .

Too many coups as well to be confident in investing here ...?

 

Coups is an issue, but underneath the top fighting things plod along in most sectors regardless of who is in power. None of the bickering political factions want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

 

He just wants to paint a picture of Thailand that is not ( yet ) true .

[Gknrd]

I imagine large multinational corp's have learned their lesson with China. Maybe a few will relocate to Thailand but most from the US are going to Mexico South America.  Even the Chinese are building huge mega factories in Mexico to skirt the export tariffs from China.  China is done for and Thailand is following in its footsteps politically .  Funny, even the Chinese are not building in Thailand like in North America...

[Caldera]

It's more like all those companies are looking for alternatives to China, they aren't suddenly keen to get into Thailand specifically. 

[crazykopite]

It’s okay asking these companies but what was there reply back to him dare I say maybe we will consider it in the future when there is a democratically elected government in place with zero military interference I can just see Ellen Musks big smirk on his face when the PM asked him for his billions !

[Enzian]

4 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Please come and bail out our poor country.

Specifically it's come increase out tax base so we can pay for the upcoming farmer bail-outs, welfare give-aways, effective vote-buying of our populist policies without driving up the national debt to the point that voters think twice about us in the next elections--assuming that the next elections will mean anything at all.

[Adumbration]

No they're not.

[smutcakes]

56 minutes ago, crazykopite said:

It’s okay asking these companies but what was there reply back to him dare I say maybe we will consider it in the future when there is a democratically elected government in place with zero military interference I can just see Ellen Musks big smirk on his face when the PM asked him for his billions !

You are aware Tesla's largest manufacturing base is in China are you? I dont think Tesla care about Democratic elections. Google have already announced 6 months ago they are investing billions for Google Cloud and Amazon have already started developing a number of data centers in Thailand.....

[retarius]

Yeah, Srettha did a brilliant job in NYC at the UNGA. (sarc) Let's see what his brilliant performance does to FDI (foreign direct investment) when he hikes the minimum wage.

[Cake Monster]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

except for some legal issues which need to be addressed to facilitate investment,

The main issue is probably whether there is any recouse to Justice in a Thai Court should the need arise

[thailand49]

If he is making that claim then the opposite is true! 

[Sigmund]

Make visa issues and life more simple for the retirees who spend. Any retiree who owns property in Thailand even if a small place, will always end up in spending more then any 2 week stay tourist.

 

Make the banks be more foreigner friendly to open accounts for foreigners or tourists and stop asking for those absurd residence certificates or certified photocopy translations from embassies for each and every formality - mainly in some DLT offices where the staff can be rude, not speak a word of english and invent new documents to show. Even if the website says someting different. 

 

If not,  the people will just leave the country with their good money as the retirees all over thailand contribute substantially to bring in money.

[Mavideol]

14 hours ago, webfact said:

For instance, he said, he asked Microsoft to invest in developing a regional data centre in Thailand, a project which requires at least US$5 billion in investment, and Tesla to invest in building an electric vehicle assembly plant in the country.

would they be forced to " only own" 49% of the company, have to go thru the unnecessary mind blowing paper work & duplicate/triplicate copies, etc., .... if so, I doubt they or anybody else would be interested

[smutcakes]

18 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

would they be forced to " only own" 49% of the company, have to go thru the unnecessary mind blowing paper work & duplicate/triplicate copies, etc., .... if so, I doubt they or anybody else would be interested

They own 100%? Why would they not? Why would they need to give Thais 51% of their business?

 

AWS have invested here, Google have already announced they are investing, Microsoft typically follow AWS.

 

Yeah there is paperwork, but they are big companies with big resources so a bit of paperwork is not going to put them off... thats why they pay lawyers.

[Gknrd]

Hahaha, if you really want to know what is going on in Thailand just look at the propaganda the government is pumping out. Then know just the opposite is happening.