Deputy Prime Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula outlined the government’s strategies to make Thailand Southeast Asia’s center of international trade at a forum in Chonburi.
Pridiyathorn told about 1,000 regional business executives attending the Eastern Industrial Strategic Plan Forum Jan. 14 that a seven-year investment-promotion program begun this month will focus on developing infrastructure with a dual-track railroad serving Chonburi’s Maptaput industrial estate being the linchpin of the plan. It will help reduce logistics costs and facilitate international business, he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula appears on the big screen during a forum in Chonburi to outline government strategies to make Thailand Southeast Asia’s center of international trade.
Chonburi Gov. Khomsan Ekachai opened the “Building Thailand as the Center for International Trade” seminar at the Bangsaen Heritage Hotel in Chonburi. He said the province is an important location for industry as it offers potential and services that allow continuous development.
The forum was organized to give eastern businesses a chance to learn of financial policies and strategies the government has for promoting investment in the region. Currently, there are approximately 2,130 factories in Chonburi amounting to 1.5 trillion baht in investment.
The deputy prime minister said Thailand has faced many limitations on growth, the most recent of which was the political unrest throughout much of 2014. Other problems have included scarcity of labor, limitations in expanding petrochemical and sponge iron industries, fiercer competition within the ASEAN region, and laws and regulations that do not facilitate business.
Therefore, Pridiyathorn said, developing Thailand as the center of international business is not an easy task since the country has to face competition from Singapore and Hong Kong. Hence, the government has given much importance into developing its financial potential by developing Thailand as the center of business and investment within the region.
Besides infrastructure, other initiatives include technology sharing, increasing agricultural value, energy conservation, and recycling, he said.
Hiranya Sujinai, acting secretary for the Board of Investment, said that agency believes that in the past decade, due to many local and international situations, the business climate has changed drastically. Thus, she said, it’s necessary that the board adapt its strategies to current trends in order to keep investments consistent with the country’s future social and financial development plans, governmental policies and industrial-strategic plans.
The BOI has studied investment trends since 2011 and has analyzed various factors that will effect investment, and organized meetings with investors, governmental agencies and locals to improve investment policies.
The result, she said, was a seven-year strategic-investment plan running through 2021 that aims to promote valuable investments locally and internationally for Thailand to become more competitive and grow out of a “middle-income trap”.
