Growing investment of Malaysia in Thai projects

With 25 projects worth 16.763 billion baht (100 baht = RM9.26) being approved in the first eight months of this year, Malaysian-based companies have emerged as one of the top investors in Thailand. Last year, Malaysian companies invested 11.57 billion baht in 33 projects. The leading investor in the kingdom is Japan which got approval for 193 projects worth about 44.93 billion baht this year. Though the country is facing political and natural turmoils, Thailand on the whole has approved 496 projects worth 174.91 billion baht from January to August this year. Of this, 305 projects, valued at 87.21 billion baht, were 100 percent foreign-owned.

Malaysia’s investments this year were largely in sectors like electric and electronic, agriculture, mineral and ceramics, light industries/textiles, metal products and machinery, chemicals and paper. Among the biggest Malaysian investors in Thailand are Petroleum Nasional Bhd, Aapico Hitech plc, Sime Darby Bhd, Trans Thai-Malaysia Ltd, Century Logistics and Bina Puri while other companies operating here include RHB Bank and CIMB.

Hirunya Suchinai, senior executive investment advisor at Board of Investment (BOI), said, “Malaysian investment projects refer to projects with Malaysian capital of at least 10 percent. That is why we have companies like Western Digital listed as investments from Malaysia.”

The BOI had approved investments totalling US$1.6 billion from over 160 Malaysian companies in the past five years, mostly in the electric and electronics, metal products and machinery sectors, while Thailand’s investments in Malaysia amounted to over US$200 million (US$1=RM3.39).