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.