The Finance Ministry is looking at measures to help increase investment in a new bioeconomy, focused on health and the environment.
Kanit Saengsuphan, chairman of a Finance Ministry committee tasked with creating measures to attract more private investment, said it would conduct a survey on several groups of investment.
First the committee will look at companies already granted Board of Investment privileges that have not started investing.
"We will seek additional support programmes for each industry, as each faces different obstacles preventing them from starting to invest," he said.
In some cases, Thai investment packages may be smaller than those of neighbouring countries, delaying investment, said Mr Kanit.
For instance, Malaysia classified bioplastic investment as "very important" because it valued the bioplastic industry at 20 billion baht, well above the Thai valuation of only 10 billion.
"That's why Malaysia grants very high privileges to foreign investors in this sector compared with Thailand, which is a policy we may have to rethink," he said.
Mr Kanit said bioplastics is one of several sectors the government should support because it adds value to industries, such as with packaging, and sugar cane could be used to create the plastics.
"The bioplastics industry could help improve sugar cane strains to produce more cane juice and support cane prices," he said.
Mr Kanit said the government should make supporting bioindustry a national policy, as it is a global trend, with the US and EU switching to green products.
"Several countries have adopted a policy not to accept any products that fail to meet their eco-standards. That's why we need our own national policy on this," he said.
The government is looking for ways to set up new industrial clusters in 13 economic zones, focusing on high-technology investment, including for robotic automation, medical and aviation industries.
"We use a lot of robotic automation systems, so why don't we support investment in making robots to meet rising demand," said Mr Kanit.