Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH — The Thai Board of Funding (BOI) formally inaugurated its workplace in Saudi Arabia to capitalize on funding potential and regional cooperation.
This marks its first workplace within the Center East, launched in the course of the “Saudi-Thai Funding Discussion board” held in Riyadh on Sunday, with senior authorities officers and enterprise leaders from each nations in attendance.
The discussion board explored alternatives to maximise bilateral commerce and funding cooperation. BOI Secretary-Basic Narit Therdsteerasukdi introduced on “Funding Technique in Thailand and Enterprise Promotion Alternatives.”
Therdsteerasukdi highlighted that Thailand gives engaging alternatives for buyers and goals to spice up commerce and funding in each instructions. He emphasised that each Thailand and the Kingdom function vital industrial hubs with the potential to help one another of their respective areas.
Therdsteerasukdi added: “We hope that buyers from Saudi Arabia and the Center East think about Thailand as an funding base to increase enterprise within the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and profit from Thailand’s membership within the Regional Complete Financial Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest free commerce space.”
He expressed hope that Thai firms will make their cooperation with companions within the Kingdom a cornerstone of their efforts to entry Center Japanese markets, which comprise 400 million folks. In 2023, bilateral commerce between the 2 nations reached roughly $8.8 billion, representing about 22% of Thailand’s complete commerce with the Center East.
The BOI workplace will cowl 13 nations within the Center East, together with Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, and the UAE. The Riyadh workplace is BOI’s seventeenth worldwide workplace, with two extra places of work set to open in Chengdu, China, and Singapore within the coming months.
Therdsteerasukdi identified sturdy potential for funding and cooperation in a number of key sectors, together with agriculture, processed meals, renewable power, healthcare, medical providers, and particularly electrical automobiles.
The discussion board witnessed the signing of 11 memorandums of understanding between Thai and Saudi firms, overlaying cooperation in power, infrastructure, engineering, agriculture, and forestry. The Thai personal sector was represented by executives from 28 firms, led by Commerce Council President Sanan Angubolkul and Federation of Thai Industries Vice President Chartchai Panichewa.
The Thai delegation held conferences with main Saudi firms, together with Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Funding Firm (SALIC), and Seer Motors, Saudi Arabia’s first electrical automobile model.
Thailand’s funding promotion functions reached their highest stage in 9 years in 2023, valued at 848.3 billion baht (roughly $24 billion), a 43% enhance from the earlier yr’s adjusted determine. This progress was pushed by vital overseas direct funding within the 5 precedence sectors of BOI’s new funding promotion technique.
The 5 key sectors are inexperienced industries, automotive (together with electrical automobiles), semiconductors and superior electronics, digital and artistic industries, and worldwide enterprise facilities, collectively representing greater than half of complete funding commitments. Main sources of funding embrace China, Japan, Singapore, and the USA.
Traders select Thailand for its strategic location on the coronary heart of ASEAN, a typical market in Southeast Asia with 10 nations and 670 million shoppers, located close to China and India.
