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Japanese were once again the biggest investor in Thailand during the first half of 2022, bringing in more than 26-billion-baht worth of investments out of the total of nearly 65 billion baht, the Ministry of Commerce said on Monday.
“The top three largest foreign investors were from Japan, Singapore and the United States who together invested more than 39.61 billion baht,” said Sinit Lertkrai, the Deputy Minister of Commerce.
A total of 284 foreign investors were allowed to open a business in Thailand between January and June 2022, bringing in 64.95-billion-baht worth of investments and 3,164 Thai employees were employed.
This represents a 7.58 per cent increase or 20 more investors and 29.63 billion baht more investments when compared to the same period last year.
Of the total number of investors, 71 were Japanese who invested a total of 26.24 billion baht, 51 Singaporean who invested a total of 10.48 billion baht and 35 American who invested a total of 2.89 billion baht.
Sinit said most of the investments were in targeted industries including platform and website providers for passenger transport, delivery and e-commerce industries, providers of electric vehicle charging stations, engineering services and petroleum drilling services.
A total of 55 investors have invested in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) in the first six months of 2022, accumulating 29.46-billion-baht worth of investments and accounting for 42 per cent of the total investments by foreign investors in the first half of 2022.
Most of the investors within the EEC during the first six months were Japanese (24 investors with investments worth 18.48 billion baht) Singaporean (six investors with investments worth 1.79 billion baht and American (four investors with investments worth 996 million baht).
Most of the investments in the EEC were assemble technology, electronic parts and telecommunication equipment.
Sinit said the ministry expects more foreign investments in the last six months of 2022 because of the government’s measures to promote foreign investment and stimulate the economy via the reopening of the country following the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Board of Investment (BOI) said in February that the combined value of foreign and local applications for investment promotion in 2021 was at 642.7 billion baht in 2021, up 59 per cent when compared to 2020.
Most of the foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2021 went to target sectors such as smart electronics, specialty chemicals, bioplastics and the medical cluster and the fastest growing was the digital industry.
FDI also represented 71 per cent of the total pledges at 455.3 billion baht from 783 project applications.