INVESTMENT SERVICES CENTER THE BOARD OF INVESTMENT MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY 555 Vipavadee Rangsit Road, Chatuchuck, Bangkok 10900 Tel. 0 2537- 8111, 0 2537- 8155 Fax. 0 2537-8177 www.boi.go.th
PRESS RELEASE NO. 179/ 2010 (O. 105) September 24, 2010 DATA CENTERS and RICE MILLING ADDED TO BOI’s LIST OF ACTIVITIES ELIGIBLE FOR PROMOTION
To improve Thailand’s information technology infrastructure and its position as a regional hub for IT business, the Board of Investment has expanded its list of activities eligible for investment promotion to include data centers. Additionally, in a measure to improve investments in agriculture, the Board has also added rice milling to its list of activities covered within quality grading, packaging and storage of vegetables and fruits. Industry Minister Chaiwuti Bannawat said that the recent Board of Investment meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, approved these new activities as part of BOI’s policy to better address the current market situation and improve national competitiveness. Data Centers The decision to promote data centers will help to strengthen the nation’s IT infrastructure and encourage more investment in high-level IT businesses, such as data processing, servers, workstations, storage, network systems and related communications devices. Offering investment promotion privileges to these businesses will facilitate the installation of computer back-up systems for the business sector and help reduce risks associated with unexpected events and natural disasters, power blackouts and computer virus attacks. It will also promote Thailand as an IT hub in Southeast Asia. Businesses in this new category will be eligible for an eight-year corporate income tax exemption as well as an exemption from import duty on machinery, regardless of location. Milled Rice: Quality Grading Centers The Board of Investment has adjusted the existing activity covering the use of new technology for quality grading, packaging and storage of vegetables and fruits to include rice milling. To qualify, business activities must cover the entire process, including drying, storing, milling, quality grading, and traceability testing.
Promotion for overseas investment To further promote overseas investment, the Board assigned the Office of the Board of Investment to study five industries in details — agriculture, garments and textiles, automotive parts, travel, and construction, engineering and architectural consulting. The study results will be used in drafting the country’s Thai overseas investment promotion strategies. BOI aims to encourage Thai businesses to invest in target countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in ASEAN, the Middle East, China, South Asia, Central Asia and Africa. “So far, Thai investment overseas continues to struggle because of the lack of information and analysis, especially those related to future business opportunities. This problem is the key reason that Thai outbound investment has only achieved a value of USD16,303 million, or 6.2 per cent of the country’s GDP. This has encouraged the government to establish the overseas investment promotion bureau, under the BOI supervision, to gather in-depth information to support business and investors’ decisions,” the Industry Minister said.
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