Thailand Ranked 4th Most Attractive Investment Country

According to Susumu Ushida, chief representative of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) in Singapore, the survey was done between July to August last year among respondents from 625 Japanese companies.

He said Thailand moved to fourth place, moving up one level from its 2008 position and outpacing Russia, which in 2009 fell into the ffth position.

Forty-eight per cent of respondents saw Thailand as a country with a good potential economically and for domestic markets, with 41 per cent saying the country has a low wage ratio, and around one-fourth saw Thailand as an important production base for exports.

However, in terms of obstacles that concern Japanese investors, almost 40 per cent of those surveyed -- two out of fve -- said there is now higher and more ferce competition from rival companies. Around onethird of the respondents said they had a problem from the lack of competent personnel at executive levels, while another one-third said Thailand’s socio-political conficts have now become the country’s weakness.

The investors’ attitudes towards investment have also changed from producing their merchandise for export to a third country to giving more importance to the size of the markets in each country they invest so each particular country can be both a production and distribution base for Japanese goods.

This strategy can be seen in China, India and Vietnam where chemical and electronics industries are outstanding and outpacing the automobile industry which has seen lower sales volumes due to the global economic crisis.

In order to build confdence among Japanese investors, Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) together with Thailand’s Ministry of Finance Ministry are planning a road show in Japan next month to clarify to prospective investors and others needing to know about Thailand's ongoing political problems.

Meanwhile, BOI secretary-general Atchaka Sribunruang believes foreign investors, mostly from China, India and South Korea, will nonetheless apply for BOI promotional privileges as expected at around a level of Bt500 billion this year, as applications in January alone already reached about Bt50 billion.

The BOI chief also believed that within the expected amount of money, a monthly average of around Bt40 billion would be divided between electrical power, alternative energy and electronics sectors.