Thailand faces backlog of 200 foreign direct investment projects
Thailand’s political turmoil over the last six months has caused a backlog of roughly 200 foreign investment projects awaiting government approval. The value is the equivalent of about $12.3 billion, a senior government official said on May 21.
Ajarin Pattanapanchai, deputy secretary general of the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), expects the projects, each exceeding 200 million baht ($6.15 million) in value, will be cleared by August.
“It is around 400 billion baht… It will take about two to three months to clear it,” Ajarin was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Thailand has been without a proper government since December. As a consequence, the BOI board, which approves major investment applications, was not reappointed until last month. Its two-year term expired in October 2013.
The sentiment was shared by commerce attaches in Japan, US, Indonesia, Austria and the UK, according to reports.
An adviser to the Commerce Ministry, Ampawan Pichalai however is confident that the nation’s exports can still grow, thanks to the recovering global economy especially in the US, the European Union, Japan and in ASEAN. She said that the Ministry met with commerce officials attached to 64 Thai embassies around the globe on current obstacles to exports, adding that the Ministry expected to readjust the export target figure to reflect the current situation.
Thailand's political turmoil over the last six months has caused a backlog of roughly 200 foreign investment projects awaiting government approval. The value is the equivalent of about $12.3 billion, a senior government official said on May 21. Ajarin Pattanapanchai, deputy secretary general of the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), expects the projects, each exceeding 200 million baht ($6.15 million) in value, will be cleared by August. "It is around 400 billion baht... It will take about two to three months to clear it," Ajarin was quoted as saying by Reuters. Thailand has been without a proper government since December....
Thailand’s political turmoil over the last six months has caused a backlog of roughly 200 foreign investment projects awaiting government approval. The value is the equivalent of about $12.3 billion, a senior government official said on May 21.
Ajarin Pattanapanchai, deputy secretary general of the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), expects the projects, each exceeding 200 million baht ($6.15 million) in value, will be cleared by August.
“It is around 400 billion baht… It will take about two to three months to clear it,” Ajarin was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Thailand has been without a proper government since December. As a consequence, the BOI board, which approves major investment applications, was not reappointed until last month. Its two-year term expired in October 2013.
The sentiment was shared by commerce attaches in Japan, US, Indonesia, Austria and the UK, according to reports.
An adviser to the Commerce Ministry, Ampawan Pichalai however is confident that the nation’s exports can still grow, thanks to the recovering global economy especially in the US, the European Union, Japan and in ASEAN. She said that the Ministry met with commerce officials attached to 64 Thai embassies around the globe on current obstacles to exports, adding that the Ministry expected to readjust the export target figure to reflect the current situation.
