Thailand’s biggest foreign investor stands by the country
Japan, Thailand’s biggest foreign direct investor, said it would keep offering support to its companies in the country as concerns grow that after the death of the King some sort of political instability could arise, which could negatively effect on the economy.
Currently, Japan has more than 4,000 companies operating in Thailand, among them a large number of auto and electronics manufacturing plants.
“The government will offer appropriate support to Japanese companies if necessary so that the impact on them would be kept to a minimum,” top Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away on October 13.
“We are expecting a slowdown in Thailand’s economy over the next 12 months,” John Marrett, research analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said in a commentary.
However, Thai stocks rebounded sharply on October 14 after plunging in the week before as analysts warned over the possible political and economic fallout from the King’s demise.
Japanese auto giants Toyota and Honda said it would be business as usual for their factories in Thailand. Japan’s direct investment in Thailand was $4.2 billion last year alone.
Meanwhile, the important tourism sector in Thailand is likely to take a hit due to the one-year mourning period, of which at least the first 30 days will mean no events, no colourful clothing, no music and no dancing – that’s the message tourists are hearing from tour operators.
Hotels and airlines are already reporting unusually high cancellations, and tourists who recently arrived and were taken by surprise by the events say they would rather fly to another country for their holidays as many famous attractions in Thailand, including the Grand Palace in Bangkok and popular entertainment venues, would be closed anyway.
Chinese tourists, who make the largest share of foreign tourists to Thailand, are in fact being dissuaded by travel agencies at home from visiting Thailand for at least the next four weeks. Foreign embassies of other countries say that visitors should be respectful, but also vigilant since unexpected things could happen.
The number of foreign visitors coming to Thailand was very close to the 30-million mark last year, up seven per cent from last year and accounting for a whopping 10 per cent or $61 billion of GDP.
From China, 7.9 million arrived, while Malaysia was second with more than three million visitors and Japan third with 1.4 million.
This year, the original estimate was 33 million visitors, but this is likely to be revised since the last quarter of the year under normal circumstances is normally the busiest in tourism, but this year probably won’t.
Japan, Thailand's biggest foreign direct investor, said it would keep offering support to its companies in the country as concerns grow that after the death of the King some sort of political instability could arise, which could negatively effect on the economy. Currently, Japan has more than 4,000 companies operating in Thailand, among them a large number of auto and electronics manufacturing plants. "The government will offer appropriate support to Japanese companies if necessary so that the impact on them would be kept to a minimum," top Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters. King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away on...
Japan, Thailand’s biggest foreign direct investor, said it would keep offering support to its companies in the country as concerns grow that after the death of the King some sort of political instability could arise, which could negatively effect on the economy.
Currently, Japan has more than 4,000 companies operating in Thailand, among them a large number of auto and electronics manufacturing plants.
“The government will offer appropriate support to Japanese companies if necessary so that the impact on them would be kept to a minimum,” top Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away on October 13.
“We are expecting a slowdown in Thailand’s economy over the next 12 months,” John Marrett, research analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said in a commentary.
However, Thai stocks rebounded sharply on October 14 after plunging in the week before as analysts warned over the possible political and economic fallout from the King’s demise.
Japanese auto giants Toyota and Honda said it would be business as usual for their factories in Thailand. Japan’s direct investment in Thailand was $4.2 billion last year alone.
Meanwhile, the important tourism sector in Thailand is likely to take a hit due to the one-year mourning period, of which at least the first 30 days will mean no events, no colourful clothing, no music and no dancing – that’s the message tourists are hearing from tour operators.
Hotels and airlines are already reporting unusually high cancellations, and tourists who recently arrived and were taken by surprise by the events say they would rather fly to another country for their holidays as many famous attractions in Thailand, including the Grand Palace in Bangkok and popular entertainment venues, would be closed anyway.
Chinese tourists, who make the largest share of foreign tourists to Thailand, are in fact being dissuaded by travel agencies at home from visiting Thailand for at least the next four weeks. Foreign embassies of other countries say that visitors should be respectful, but also vigilant since unexpected things could happen.
The number of foreign visitors coming to Thailand was very close to the 30-million mark last year, up seven per cent from last year and accounting for a whopping 10 per cent or $61 billion of GDP.
From China, 7.9 million arrived, while Malaysia was second with more than three million visitors and Japan third with 1.4 million.
This year, the original estimate was 33 million visitors, but this is likely to be revised since the last quarter of the year under normal circumstances is normally the busiest in tourism, but this year probably won’t.
