Is it Profitable to Invest in Thailand?
Thailand’s well-defined investment policies focus on liberalization and promote free trade. The Thai government is very supportive of letting private sector penetrate the country’s business ecosystem, especially the ones that contribute to the development of technology, innovation, and skills. This country has been consistently raking among one of the most attractive investment locations in the international surveys. In fact, the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2016 has announced Thailand to be the 49th easiest country to do business.
Additionally, the Thai government together with the Board of Investment has established a lot of resources in order to support as well as assist investors while offering a wide range of tax and non-tax benefits. Similarly, other governing bodies, including International Chambers of Commerce and the Department of International Trade Promotion, provide invaluable support.
Thailand enjoys a strategic location and therefore is the hub of the largest growing economic market. It is the gateway to the Greater Mekong plus Southeast Asia, where almost all the newly emerging businesses offer huge business potential. The country has supported economic integration with the neighboring countries and has boosted the growth of free trade in the region. After ASEAN Economic Community coming into the scene in 2016, regional integration has gained a whole new level. This has been possible because AEC has developed a single market and production base, which is extremely competitive and targets at achieving a fully integrated market in the global community.
Incentives that Thailand Offers to Encourage Foreign Investors
In order to attract more number of foreign investors, the Board of Investment offers fiscal as well as non-tax incentives. Even, the BOI guarantees against competition from the new state enterprises and nationalization. Also, it welcomes foreign nationals to conduct investment feasibility studies and to work under promoted projects while sanctioning permission for the foreign entities to own land to carry out all the BOI promoted activities for residences of workers and management.
In order to lessen the initial investment costs and better the rate of return, the board of investment offers a range of tax incentives that include exemption of import duties on imported machinery, exemption of import duty on the imported components and a CIT holiday of about 8 years, etc.
Similarly, the BOI also lend their helping hand to find joint venture partners plus they promote industrial subcontracting and offer business facilitation services in order to assist in resolving issues that involve other government agencies. In addition, they operate service center for work permits and visas, enabling investors to get long-term visas as well as work permit in even less than three hours. The center also intends to facilitate investment by giving information regarding doing business in Thailand in sectors related to science and innovation.
