More foreign companies were approved to operate businesses in Thailand in July than in the previous month, but their combined investment value was much lower.
Authorities approved licences to 35 foreign entities to operate businesses in the country this month, up 9% from June but down 10% year-on-year, said Pongpan Jiarawiriyapan, director-general of the Business Development Department.
Of the total, 23 were first-time applicants, she added.
The combined value of their investment fell 63%, or 987 million baht, from the previous month to 580 million baht. The new businesses planned to hire 385 Thais.
In the first seven months of this year, 242 foreigners were approved to run businesses in the country, up 18% year-on-year. Their combined investment was 8.59 billion baht, down 34% or 4.47 billion baht from the previous year.
"July's investment value fell sharply because of the high base in the same month last year, when most of the applicants were capital-intensive businesses," she said.
The 35 new businesses are:
- 20 service suppliers to their groups and industrial operators from Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Luxembourg (509 million baht);
- 9 representative offices from Singapore, Japan, Germany, France, Australia and Denmark (40 million baht);
- 3 wholesale businesses from Japan, Singapore and India (19 million baht);
- 1 hydraulic and transmission-parts retail business from Singapore (6 million baht);
- 1 broker from Singapore (3 million); and
- 1 party to a government/state-enterprise contract from South Korea (3 million baht)