After the COVID-19 pandemic, many foreigners are investing in Thailand

       After the COVID-19 pandemic began to improve, many countries relaxed their disease control measures and allowed more convenient international travel. Thailand also has a policy to open the country and has tried to issue various economic measures to attract foreign investors to make investments in Thailand, with the hope that the country’s economy will recover and grow faster.

       According to the Department of Business Development, throughout the first 11 months of 2022 (January-November) under the Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 (1999), a total of 530 foreign investors were allowed to invest in Thailand. Among these 530 foreign investors, 198 investors have foreign business licenses and 332 investors have foreign business certificates, with a total investment capital of 112,466 million baht and employing 5,008 Thai people.

       When we compare the same period in 2021 (January-November), we find that there were 30 fewer foreign investors in 2021, representing a 6% difference (530 foreign investors were allowed in 2022, while 500 foreign investors were allowed in 2021); investment capital increased by 47,884 million baht in 2022, a 74% increase (the investment capital was 64,582 million baht in 2021 and 112,466 million baht in 2022); but the number of Thai people that were employed by investors was essentially the same (5,008 were employed in 2021 and 5,008 in 2022).

       During January-November 2022, most of the permitted investment businesses were businesses that were in line with the national infrastructure development, the government’s investment promotion policy supporting the businesses related to the country's target industries. For example, design, construction, installation, and inspection of the energy storage system for the integrated power plant project at U-Tapao Airport; petroleum well-drilling services within the exploration block of the concession area in the Gulf of Thailand; dredging services; sea reclamation and sediment screen construction for infrastructure development in the Map Ta Phut Industrial Port Development Project; electric vehicle charging station services for electric vehicles; engineering and technical services, such as providing comprehensive technical consulting in automotive parts production, design assistance, system development and testing, and more. This includes state-of-the-art international distribution centers and analytics and connectivity software development and services to manage Big Data and data analytics.

            As for investment in the EEC, it was found that 105 foreign investors invested during January-November 2022, representing 20% of the total number of investors, with investment capital in the EEC of 48,316 million baht, representing 43% of the total investment capital.

       Among these investors, 42 Japanese investors invested in Thailand with an investment capital of 24,520 million baht; nine Chinese investors made investments of 10,956 million baht; and nine Singaporean investors made investments of 2,156 million baht.

       The businesses invested in by these foreign investors include international distribution center services with modern systems, software development services providing design and development of production control management systems in factories and inventory management systems, and engineering and technical services such as application development and software upgrades.