Foreign Investment Exceeds 500 Million Baht

[Jai Dee]

BOI REPORTED 561 BILLION BAHT OF ENDORSED INVESTMENTS IN FIRST 9 MONTHS THIS YEAR

The Board of Investment has revealed that in the first 9 months of this year, more than 500 billion baht of investments and endorsements have been made, which is 50% higher than year. Meanwhile it is confident the requests for investment incentives will reach the target of 700 billion baht.

Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister SOMKID JATUSRIPITAK (สมคิด จาตุศรีพิทักษ์) said that from the BOI's report for the first 9 months this year, investments receiving endorsements amounted to as much as 561 billion baht, a 50% increase from the same period last year.

Dr. SOMKID said he has assigned the Board of Investment to survey its personnel abroad to determine the need for an increase of personnel overseas that would help publicize and draw more foreign investors into investment in Thailand.

Source: thaisnews.com ประจำวันอังคารที่ 18 ตุลาคม 2548

[Jai Dee]

BOI HAS CREATED A SUBCOMMITTEE TO CONSIDER ADDITIONAL INVESTMENT INCENTIVES

The Board of Investment has appointed Mr. BOONKLEE PLANGSIRI (บุญคลี ปลั่งศิริ), the executive chairperson of Shin Corporation, as the chairperson for its subcommittee responsible for working out investment incentives.

Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister SOMKID JATUSRIPITAK (สมคิด จาตุศรีพิทักษ์) yesterday chaired a meeting of the Board of Investment, announcing plans to establish a subcommittee to design incentives to attract direct investment from overseas. Shin Corporation's Executive Chairperson, Mr. BOONKLEE PLANGSIRI, will chair the subcommittee, which will sought additional incentives that would attract more foreign investors into Thailand. This is due to the concern that current privileges in machinery tax and corporate income tax reductions may not provoke investments in target industries, such as logistics, automotive, electrical and electronics, agricultural processing, and fashion. The newly established subcommittee will consider additional incentives within a month.

Dr. SOMKID said that from his trip with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's delegation to the European Union last week, he found that businessmen from France, U.K., Russia, and several other countries have shown great interests in investing in Thailand, but they saw that incentives provided by Thailand were not yet attractive enough. Thus a subcommittee had to be established to consider additional incentives. Dr. SOMKID believe that once there are additional incentives, many hundreds of billions of baht will be invested in Thailand within the next 4-5 years, and the country will emerge as the gateway to trade and investment in the region without barriers.

Source: thaisnews.com ประจำวันอังคารที่ 18 ตุลาคม 2548