THAILAND’S 2022 INVESTMENT PLEDGES UP 39 PCT TO 664.6 BLN BAHT

By Linda Khoo Hui Li

BANGKOK, Jan 13 (Bernama) -- Thailand’s investment pledges hit 664.6 billion baht (100 baht: RM13.13) at the end of 2022, a 39 per cent increase from a year ago, driven by foreign direct investments (FDIs) in key sectors including electric vehicles (EVs) supply chain. 

Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) Secretary General Narit Therdsteerasukdi said the increase in applications in 2022 came largely from global leaders such as BYD Auto, Foxconn and Amazon Web Services. 

“This shows their confidence in Thailand as a resilient and investor-friendly location for investments in the industries of the future. 

“This augurs well for 2023 when we expect the same sectors to attract more new investments,” he said.

“We expect investment pledges for 2023 of between 500 billion baht and 600 billion baht,” he told reporters at a press conference after a board meeting chaired by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan o-cha at the Government House today. 

BOI said local and foreign investors filed a total of 2,119 applications for investment promotion worth a combined 664.6 billion baht, led by investments in the electronics and electrical appliances sector worth 129.5 billion baht.

The second largest group of combined value applications was the automotive sector with 105.4 billion baht. 

Investment applications in the EV supply chain which include pure EVs, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and batteries amounted to almost 54 billion baht, it said. 

Meanwhile,Narit said FDI projects rose 36 per cent from the previous year to 433.971 billion baht, representing 65 per cent of total pledges.

He said investments from China topped the FDI value rankings with 158 projects worth a combined 77.4 billion baht followed by Japan (50.8 billion baht for 293 projects), the United States (50.3 billion baht for 33 projects), Taiwan (45.2 billion baht for 68 projects) and Singapore (44.3 billion baht for 178 projects).

He added that the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), Thailand’s prime industrial areas comprising Chonburi, Chachoengsao, and Rayong provinces, topped the regional ranking attracting 358.8 billion baht worth of investments, a rise of 84 per cent from 2021.

Meanwhile, BOI today approved three large scale investment projects worth a combined 15.8 billion baht. The projects include BYD Auto Components (Thailand) Co. Ltd. that would invest 3.89 billion baht in a facility to produce batteries for both pure EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles. 

The other projects are Thai Tokai Carbon Product Co. Ltd. that received approval to invest 9.49 billion baht in the expansion of its production of carbon black, an additive to reinforce tires based on carbon feed stock oil, and TPI Polene Power PCL that received approval to invest 2.40 billion baht in a project to produce fuel from waste.

— BERNAMA