BANGKOK, 21 January 2014 (NNT) — President of Toyota Motor Thailand Co. Ltd. Mr. Kyoichi Tanada stated that the company remains hesitant about investing in Thailand for its near future, quoting political unrest as the main reason.

Toyota has unveiled that its investment plans to build automobile production hubs will depend upon Thailand’s political situation. Mr. Kyoichi stated that the company would like to see new investments at the Bang Pho factory in Chachoengsao province in the next 3-4 years; however, political tensions in the country have raised some concerns from the company’s headquarters in Japan.

Although the current demonstrations have not had a significant negative effect on the conglomerate, Mr. Kyoichi stated that there are fewer people visiting the showrooms due to the protests, which could result in lower sales in Thailand.

Mr. Kyoichi added that last year Toyota saw a 7.4% drop in its Thailand sales - albeit having a good first half of the year and benefiting from the government’s first-car buyer’s scheme. However, the company plans to once again reign as the number one car seller in Thailand this year.

-- NNT 2014-1-21

Thinks this topic is already running in Motoring forum?

Hmmm. Japan just bought a very large parcel of industrial land near the planned port at Yangon where the new deep water port is being built by the Japanese and the US. The US also bought a large industrial parcel of land there.

This was after Yingluck got snubbed in her begging for the port to go just West of Bangkok where there is a lot of vacant industrial land.

With the high import tariffs, very high minimum wage, and brown envelopes requested to do biz in Thailand, things might change.