Thai's FDI slip 37%

Thai's FDI slip 37%

BANGKOK (DPA): Thailand approved foreign investment projects worth 303.4 billion baht (US$8.4 billion) last year, a 37 per cent drop from 1997 figures, Board of Investment (BOI) officials said Thursday.

For the first time in years approvals for European investments, which reached 137.6 billion baht last year, exceeded investments from Japanese companies, worth 68 billion baht, according to the BOI's year-end figures.

Japan has traditionally been the largest source of foreign investment in Thailand for more than a decade.

The government-run BOI provides tax incentives and other privileges to foreign investors to attract them to Thailand.

In 1998 the BOI relaxed several of its restrictive measures on foreign investments, such as allowing 100 per cent foreign-owned factories to be set up in Bangkok and neighboring provinces and allowing foreign firms to buy out their local partners.