Are You Thinking of Investing in Thailand’s Robotics Industry?

That may be a great way to jump-start your entrepreneurship! The Thailand Board of Investment or as we commonly known it as BOI, it promotes investment in this sector for both the supply side, including manufacturers of robotics and automation systems and parts, and demand side, including manufacturers who are applying for robotics in production processes.

Investment incentives for the supply side include 5-8 year corporate income tax exemption. However, the activities are applicable to 15 business activities;

1. Manufacture of automation machinery and/or automation equipment with engineering design, which includes automation system integration and control system configuration;
2. Assembly of robots or automation equipment and/or automation parts;
3. Engineering design;

These being the primary activities, there are listed supporting activities too;

4. Manufacture of telecommunication products;
5. Manufacture of parts of emission, transmission and reception devices that are used in fiber-optic and wireless communication system;
6. Manufacture of electronic control parts and measurement instruments for agricultural/industrial use and medical/scientific devices;
7. Microelectronics design;
8. Embedded system design;
9. High value-added software;

In a bid to improve the production efficiency for the Demand Side, investment incentives of 3-year corporate income tax exemption alongside tax exemption cap that doesn’t goes beyond 50% of the investment capital. Similarly, the applying projects must make use of the automation system in the present production line to improve the production efficiency, i.e., mechanical arms for lifting cast iron or steel parts to avoid high-risk and dangerous tasks.  

Well, incentives under these measures are accorded to both the existing BOI promoted projects as well as non-BOI promoted projects. However, the activities in these projects must be eligible for investment promotion. And the measures have been divided into four groups as below;

1. Utilizing the automation systems for conservation of the energy, and reduction of environmental impact or alternative energy

• Energy conservation, like, replacement of furnace devices in glass production lines, replacement of ovens in the manufacturing plants of processed food products, and modification made to high efficiency cooling fans;
• Reduction of Environmental Impact, like, installation of Vent Master to reduce the circulation of Volatile Organic Compounds, and improvement of the waste water management system;
• Alternative energy, like, installation of solar panels in order to produce electricity for own-usage and electricity generation from waste water, etc;

2. Machinery replacement or upgrade to better the production efficiency, for example, installation of automated conveyor systems in warehouses, installation of automatic raw material feeding system, installation of x-rays machines, and installation of furnace cleaning robots.
3. Research and engineering design in order to enhance the production efficiency, e.g., development of the products to acquire better quality or simplified usage, engineering design for production process so as to improve the production efficiency or lessen waste from the production line, etc;
4. Upgrade agro sector toward international standards; such as, investment in agro industry improvement;