Apisak frets over low FDI – 29 Apr 2017

• Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong has asked the Board of Investment (BoI) to explain the lack of growth in new applications in 1Q17 despite the strong incentives on offer.
• Mr Apisak spoke after chairing a discussion among economic-related agencies, where it was revealed that the number of investment privilege applications in 1Q17 was close to 1Q16. This was despite greater efforts and further tax incentives offered by the government in a bid to boost foreign direct investment (FDI).
• 1Q17 saw total new application requests for investment incentives reach 293, compared with 297 in the same period of 2016.
• While there was only a small drop in actual projects, the value of investment fell nearly 18% to THB62bn from THB75.6bn in 2016.
• Once the government acknowledges the root cause of the problem, it will be able to find the right way to improve the measures in a bid to achieve the country’s FDI target, Mr Apisak said.
• Previously, the government approved new incentives for investment in the Eastern Economic Corridor by extending tax breaks for importing machinery and cutting the corporate income tax rate to 10% from 20%, with the time period for those incentives being extended from eight to 13 years.
• An anonymous source said the decline in new applications during 1Q17 had resulted from a lack of clarity regarding which types of businesses or industries would be eligible for the incentives.

External Link : http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1240630/apisak-frets-over-low-fdi