Thailand’s investment pledges more than double in H1
Investment applications in Thailand in the first half of this year rose 158 percent from a year earlier to 386 billion THB (11.5 billion USD), led by the electronics and medical sectors.
Duangjai Asawachintachit, Secretary-general, the Board of Investment (Photo: Bangkok Post)
Hanoi (VNA) – Investment applications inThailand in the first half of this year rose 158 percent from a year earlier to386 billion THB (11.5 billion USD), led by the electronics and medical sectors.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) projects had acombined application value of 279 billion THB in the January-June period, upalmost four-fold from a year earlier, the Board of Investment (BOI) said in astatement on August 9.
Japan, the United States and China were the top threesource countries of FDI applications, it said.
"We feel encouraged by the fact that so manyforeign investors, including many new ones chose to invest in Thailand at atime when the global investment environment remains challenging due to thecontinued impact of the Covid-19 pandemic," said BoI head DuangjaiAsawachintachit was cited by Reuters as saying.
"That demonstrates investors’ confidence inThailand’s strengths in key industries, such as electronics, medical suppliesand biotech," she said.
In the first half of 2021, the electrical andelectronics sector attracted the most investment with 61 billion THB ofprojects, up 136 percent year-on-year. The medical sector came in second withprojects worth 43 billion THB, more than triple that of a year earlier.
Last year, combined domestic and FDI pledges dropped30 percent to 481 billion THB, with FDI applications down 54 percent to 213billion THB as firms were put off by the pandemic./.
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Duangjai Asawachintachit, Secretary-general, the Board of Investment (Photo: Bangkok Post) 
