BANGKOK, 23 March 2012 – The government has been urged to speedily boost foreign investor confidence in the country’s water resources management plan to prevent them moving their production bases to other countries.
Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) chairman Pongsak Assakul said that under current circumstances, in which labor and other production costs continue to rise, the government should particularly pay more attention to small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs.
Mr. Pongsak said that state assistance policies, in the form of loans for the elevation of competitiveness, should be introduced and extended to needed business operators.
Moreover, the TCC chairman also suggested that the government is to quickly boost the confidence of foreign investors in the areas of water resources management plan. He said that such a move will help pre-empt any relocation of production base from Thailand.
TCC vice chairman Pornsilp Patcharintanakul added that the planned 40% increase of daily minimum wage from April will affect private investment in one way or another.
He said that higher wage may possibly force both Thai and foreign investors to move their production bases to other countries, especially Cambodia where labor cost is much lower than that in Thailand in addition to export privileges granted to Cambodia by the EU.
Mr. Pornsilp is now calling for more concrete state policies to help affected entrepreneurs, including the corporate income tax cut from 30% to 23% that can be implemented along with the imposition of higher minimum wage.
