Thailand faces tough fight to woo high-tech foreign investments

Govt ramps up efforts to draw investors amid election jitters

- Jeffrey Hutton

BALI - In the run-up to Thailand's elections in May, the new head of the country's board of investment has vowed to stay the course on policies geared towards attracting high-tech industries.

Thailand is offering tax holidays of as long as 13 years for investments in biotechnology and electric vehicles (EVS) in its attempt to woo higher paying jobs and innovation, Mr Narit Therdsteerasukdi, secretary general of the board of investment of Thailand, told The Sunday Times in an interview.

He noted that the country's investment policy and "investor-friendly" attitudes to business hardly wavered during his nearly 30 years at the BOI, during which there were no fewer than two military coups, months of mass protests and a new king.

"When we have an election or a new government, the investment policy of Thailand is still consistent.

It still welcomes investors," said Mr Therdsteerasukdi, who took over as head of the agency in October.

"I believe that every government, every party will continue promote foreign investment in Thailand."

At stake is the chance to tap into the investment exodus from China, where three years of escalating Covid-19 lockdowns - only recently reversed have spooked investors.

In October, for instance, the Chinese authorities shut down Foxconn's Apple iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, central China, the company's biggest such facility, owing to Covid-19 measures.

By the time work resumed there in December, the Taiwanese electronics assembler said it would spend US$500 million (S$657 million) to expand its only iPhone factory in Chennai, India, which it had opened three months previously.