Thailand has fared well in a poll of foreign travellers asked about their favourite investment destination, with political conflict and corruption cited as the kingdom's weak points, Abac Poll reported on Wednesday.
The Public Policy for Asean Affairs Research Centre at Abac Poll of Assumption University interviewed 958 foreigners travelling to countries in Asean from Dec 10 to Jan 8, asking for their views on Thailand’s strong and weak points and the investment climate in Asean.
The samples were required to have knowledge and understanding about Thailand and at least five other countries in Asean.
Asked in what countries investors can easily access needed raw materials, Thailand topped the list, supported by 24.4% of respondents.
Indonesia came second, with 14.1%, followed by Myanmar (10.2%), Vietnam (10.1%), the Philippines (9.5%), Cambodia (7.9%), Malaysia (7.0%), Laos (6.6%), Singapore (5.8%) and Brunei (4.4%).
Questioned on countries with sufficient workforce, Thailand also ranked first, with 27%, followed by Indonesia (11.2%), Myanmar (11.0%), and Vietnam and the Philippines (9.7% each).
Thailand was also ranked first on the matter of worker quality, with support from 25.2% of respondents, Singapore took second place (24.1%) and the third rank belonged to Malaysia (10.5%).
On the issue of infrastructure quality, Singapore topped the list, with 37.7%, followed by Thailand (20.0%) and Brunei (11.8%).
Asked about countries with food safety and high quality, 30.5% of the respondents said Thailand, 25.3% pointed to Singapore and 11.2% backed Malaysia.
Questioned about the top five countries with most attractive investment promotion schemes, Thailand took first place (27.1%), followed by Singapore (21.6%), Malaysia (9.9%), Vietnam (8.8%) and Indonesia (7.4%).
Singapore topped the list of countries where people have good quality of life, with 30.6%, followed by Thailand (19.9%) and Brunei (11.4%).
Asked about countries with strong economic growth potential, Thailand topped the list again, with 23.3%, followed by Singapore (15.1%), Vietnam (10.5%), Myanmar (10.3%) and Malaysia (8.6%).
For nations with an attractive tourism promotion policy, 36.5% pointed to Thailand, 17% said Singapore and 11.3% said Malaysia.
Questioned on the countries with political stability, 27.3% said Singapore, Brunei took second (18.4%), followed by Malaysia (11.6%), the Philippines (10.4%) and Thailand (7%).
Asked about countries with good human relations, 33.4% said Thailand, 10.8% pointed to Singapore and 9.5% backed Laos.
Puntrik Issarangkul Na Ayutthaya, the research centre’s assistant director, said the poll results showed that Thailand was among the top three countries with the most interesting and attractive investment climates in Asean in 2013 in the eyes of polled foreigners.
However, the respondents pointed out that two big problems for Thailand were political instability and corruption problem.
Of total respondents, 40.6% were Asian, 37.1% European, 5.8% American, 5.3% Australian and the remaining 11.2% were other nationalities, including Mexican, Canadian, Arab and African, according to Ms Puntrik.