The government has pledged to offer greater perks for investment in agriculture, agri-business, service, tourism and human resource development, in part to raise the income of low-income earners.
Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak told Nobuhiko Sasaki, chairman and chief executive of the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro), that these industries have a heavy reliance on domestic raw materials and involve a significant portion of the population, meaning investment in those sectors would raise incomes and help tackle poverty.
"The Board of Investment (BoI) has been mandated to design a package to promote investments that help people's income and narrow income disparity," Mr Somkid said. "I've asked Jetro to become instrumental in promoting and supporting Japanese companies engaged in farm and agri-business, services, tourism and human resource development to invest in Thailand. The government pledges to offer higher promotional privileges than those given to the 12 targeted industries."
He said existing BoI policies are not attractive enough to entice large companies to invest in projects that promote and raise income among community businesses, community tourism operators and farmers.
In 2018, the BoI approved investment privileges for agriculture businesses, offering additional waivers of corporate income tax for three years for existing projects that help small companies or community businesses.
The board earlier this year also agreed to improve the policy to promote the tourism industry, extending privileges to cover museums on top of existing aquarium privileges.
The scale of investment eligible for the privilege has also been lowered to 30 million baht from 100 million. The measure aims to attract investors to second-tier provinces.
The board further added two new categories for promotional privileges: cruise terminals with the purpose of supporting infrastructure for marine tourism and large man-made tourism spots with investment of up to 100 million baht.
Mr Somkid said he asked Japan to invest more in human resource development, particularly in the areas of logistics, software development and other technology.
Mr Sasaki told Mr Somkid that Japanese companies in China are looking to relocate their facilities to Asean to stave off the negative impact of the escalating Sino-US trade row.
Japanese investors are looking at Thailand and Vietnam, Mr Sasaki said.
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