Thailand
Thailand: Investment applications fall 31% in Q1
Investment proposals dropped 31% in the January-March period from a year earlier, but the state investment promotion agency expects they will quicken later this year, the agency chief said on Tuesday.
Thai and foreign investors submitted investment applications worth a total of 62 billion baht in the first quarter of 2017, Hirunya Suchinai, secretary-general of the Board of Investment (BoI), told reporters.
That compares with about 90 billion baht in proposals in January to March 2016.
Japan remained Thailand’s biggest foreign investor in the first quarter with investment applications worth 16 billion baht, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore, Mrs Hirunya said.
The agency still expects overall investment applications at 600 billion baht this year, helped by new bills to promote investment and competitiveness, which became effective in March, Mrs Hirunya said.
“Investment applications should pick up from the second quarter. The bills will make investors interested in investing more in Thailand,” she said, without giving further details.
The value of investment projects may not be as high as in the past as the government is targeting industrial clusters and value-added sectors, which may not require big sums but will sustain long-term investment, Mr Hirunya said.
Investors have invested steadily in Thailand since the army seized power in May 2014 to end months of political unrest, with more than 1.7 trillion baht in actual investment, she said.
Faced with weak exports and domestic demand, the junta is focusing on driving investment to boost growth in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, which has lagged regional peers.
The central bank has forecast economic growth of 3.4% this year, up from 3.2% in 2016.
Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1246486/investment-applications-fall-31-in-q1