The Board of Investment (BoI) is seeking to rev up 1,600 investment projects with additional tax incentives to encourage them to begin investing soon.
The projects are worth about 600 billion baht and have been approved since 2014.
Secretary-general Hiranya Suchinai said the BoI would offer a tax exemption for a certain amount of time, depending on whether companies kicked off investment in the period from November 2015 to June 2016.
The bigger the proportion of the investment, the longer the tax-exempt period companies receive.
For instance, companies investing 70% of the project's value will receive an additional 50% tax exemption for five years, while companies investing 50% of the value will receive a 50% tax exemption for three years.
Companies that invest less than 50% of value will get a 50% tax exemption for two years.
The BoI will conduct a survey of all companies to see which industrial sectors should start investment immediately, then follow up with measures to support them.
The plan is expected to add real investment value of 400-500 billion baht a year.
Mrs Hiranya said investment applications submitted to the BoI last year were worth 218 billion baht in investment value, surpassing the target of 210 billion.
The BoI last year approved investment projects worth 800 billion baht that would create an estimated 183,000 jobs and generate 1.16 trillion baht of export revenue a year.
The agency will set a target for 2016 investment value soon along with plans to promote investment in order to meet the target, Mrs Hiranya said.
The plan will be sent to the cabinet for approval next month.
In 2015, Thailand received foreign direct investment (FDI) of 106 billion baht — well below the 1.02 trillion recorded in 2014 — after the government changed the regulations on granting privileges to insist on value-added investment instead of merely a large investment budget.
Japanese investors still rank No.1 in terms of investment value with 30 billion baht, while the Chinese rank second with 20 billion and the Singaporeans third with 18 billion.
"We need to stick to FDI because it's a trend," Mrs Hiranya said.
"So we have to set a target for FDI first, then we can set further plans such as roadshows to help FDI reach the target."
The BoI is also working on a draft plan to stimulate local investment. That proposal will go to the cabinet for approval soon.
"Since the government has assigned the BoI to work on supporting local businesses, we're working on a plan to help promote local investment including tourism and the agricultural processing sector," Mrs Hiranya added.