The investment promotion agency is confident of meeting the this year's investment target of 900 billion baht in spite of the political conflict.
Welding robots operate on the cockpits of Ford Focus vehicles as they move through the body shop station at the Ford Motor Co factory in the Hemaraj Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate in Pluak Daeng district, Rayong province, on Jan 28, 2014. (Bloomberg photo)
Foreign projects seeking investment privileges surged by 28% in value in the first quarter of this year, according to the Board of Investment (BoI).
But the value of all projects applied for the privileges fell by 10% to 234 billion baht in the same period, led by automotive and parts, petrochemicals and power plants, said secretary general Udom Wongviwatchai on Friday.
By project numbers, the total dropped 48% to 291 projects between January and March.
A breakdown revealed investment in a number of industries was expanding. The automotive, parts and machinery industry saw investment value jumping by 265% year-on-year to 157 billion baht in the first quarter, mainly thanks to the eco-car 2 project.
Investment in the services and utilities sector also rose to 31.40 billion baht, followed by petrochemicals, paper and plastics (23.20 billion) and the electronics and electric appliances (11.90 billion).
"Barring the eco-car 2 project, large projects worth a few billions to tens of billions of baht in value, applied for the privileges," said Mr Udom, referring to electrical appliance, power plants, petrochemicals and metal products.
"We're therefore confident this year's 900-billion-baht target will be reached," he added.
As for foreign direct investment in BoI projects during the quarter, Mr Udom said the total value rose 28% to 201.97 billion baht but project numbers fell 41% to 197.
Topping the list remained Japanese projects, with 61.13 billion baht in 96 projects, down by 45.4% and 30% respectively.
Projects from the United States, China and South Korea increased substantially in value during the quarter to 41.06 billion baht, 9.40 billion and 9.37 billion respectively.