Think Asia, Invest Thailand

Thailand's strategic location at the heart of Asia makes it ideal for businesses to capture a huge market. The fast growing Southeast Asian region, to which Thailand belongs, is home to more than 580 million consumers. Add to that, Thailand's friendly trade relations and expanding free trade agreements with such strong economies as China, India, Australia, and New Zealand and you have access to three billion consumers.

Thailand itself is a big market of 65 million consumers. The overall economy and several key sectors continue to grow. Thailand is the world's largest natural rubber producer and the #2 exporting country for sugar. It is the world's largest hard disk drives producer with over one third of the world market, and is well on the way to be among the world's top ten auto manufacturing countries. At the same time, it ranks 18th on the world's largest tourist receipts list and the world's 19th largest in purchasing power.

Thailand has developed the country’s infrastructure to world-class standards, which supports the growth of key economic sectors and has led to the development of comprehensive industrial clusters. Modern industrial estates, state-of-the-art transportation, communication facilities, and logistics system help achieve cost-effective business operations.

Today, there are almost 60 industrial estates, industrial zones, and industrial parks spread across every region in Thailand. Many of Thailand’s industrial estates are truly world-class, offering a comprehensive range of services and infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, flood protection, waste water treatment, solid waste disposal, communication facilities, and security systems, etc. Some estates also have customs offices, schools, hospitals, shopping centers, and other facilities needed by investors and workers.

The Thai government understands the need to provide a skilled workforce and has taken vital steps to further upgrade the quality of the country’s workforce. Human resources development and skills training are promoted to enable Thai workers to keep pace with modern technology and competition.

Through the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), the government offers a range of tax and non-tax incentives and support services. Examples of tax incentives offered to BOI promoted companies are three to eight years of corporate income tax holidays, and exemption or reduction on import duties for machinery and raw materials. Non-tax incentives include permission to own land and facilitation in bringing in foreign experts.

In addition to the many incentives offered directly by the BOI, the government also facilitates foreign investment in a number of ways. For instance, there are no foreign equity restrictions in the manufacturing sector, no local content requirements, and no export requirement.

Thailand’s culture, service-oriented attitude and renowned hospitality further differentiate the country from other investment destinations. Accommodation and leisure facilities are great and varied and the country is famous for beautiful sceneries, tourist attractions, and colorful festivals. In addition, health care is among the best in the world and the country’s international schools are truly world class.

Thailand has maintained an investor-friendly environment. In its 2010 Ease of Doing Business survey, the World Bank ranked Thailand #12 worldwide.

The Thai government supports investors through the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI). The BOI actively promotes and implements fast and efficient services to investors, including promotional privileges that help make them globally competitive.

Starting a business in Thailand is easy. For investors interested in investing in Thailand, the BOI offers investors a wide range of investment-related services and maintains the One Start One Stop Investment Center (OSOS), which consolidates staff from 21 investment-related agencies at one permanent location. Through the One-Stop Service Center for Visas and Work Permits, BOI-promoted investors can receive their work permits and visas within three hours, and the BOI can introduce investors to business partners, including parts and component manufacturers and service providers. All of this contributes towards making it easy to do business in Thailand.

Investors interested in learning more about BOI incentives and the application process can contact the BOI through either its main office in Bangkok or its regional offices throughout the country. The BOI also runs a number of overseas offices in the United States, France, Germany, Sweden, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Australia.

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