ECX3550 Business in Asia: Thailand Investment Consultancy Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the potential for a vehicle manufacturing firm to invest in Thailand. It begins with an introduction highlighting the firm's interest in the Southeast Asian market and its experience in vehicle manufacturing, specifically luxury brands. The report then delves into the automotive industry in Thailand, noting its significant production volume, key players, and government incentives. It explores the reasons for investing in Thailand, including free trade agreements, a skilled labor force, and the presence of the Eastern Economic Corridor. The report also examines Thailand's economic status, trade policies, and the size and characteristics of the middle-class population. Furthermore, it assesses Thailand's infrastructure, including improvements in transportation and communication, and its monetary policy, focusing on the Bank of Thailand's role in maintaining price stability. The report concludes with a reference list of academic sources used in the analysis, providing a solid foundation for the recommendations made. The report is a consultancy task for the ECX3550 Business in Asia module.

INVEST IN THAILAND

Introduction
■ The vehicle manufacturing firm wants to invest in South East Asia.
■ They have a considerable experience in the manufacturing of the
vehicles.
■ The investment company used to manufacture vehicles in Europe.
■ It will be exporting cars in case of South East Asia.
■ The car production companies are of the luxury brand.

Types of cars to be produced.
■ Thailand is known to produce more than two million cars in the
previous year.
■ Most of the companies comprises of the Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi
that manufactures cars.
■ Only basic cars are suitable for production in Thailand as mostly
middle class population known to stay there.
■ Government also provides incentives for manufacturing of cars in
Thailand.

Reasons for investing in Thailand
■ The investors in Thailand are known to benefit from the free trade
Agreement with China, Australia, India and many other countries of
ASEAN.
■ Thailand is also known to be one of the largest manufacturers in the
world.
■ Skilled and cheap labour force of Thailand will be helping in earning
huge profits.
■ The presence of Eastern Economic Corridor brings a great importance
on the next generation automotive industry to Thailand

Reasons for investing in Thailand
■ Thailand is also classified as an upper middle income country in South
East Asia.
■ This particular country is also known to enjoy few trade barriers for
the exports.
■ Huge number of cheap skilled labour, excellent support from the
government and trade liberalization are the positive points.

Tax policy in Thailand
■ In case of Thailand, the taxes are mostly imposed at both the local as
well as national levels.
■ The central government of Thailand is the main taxing authority.
■ The direct taxes are the personal income tax, corporate income tax
and the Petroleum income tax.
■ Business tax is generally collected at the fixed rates on the revenue
collected in case of certain business which are not subjected to VAT.

Middle class population in
Thailand
■ More than sixty percent of the population of Thailand comprises of the middle class
population.
■ The Thai middle class is mostly concentrated in Bangkok and in other urban areas.
■ The Thai society are mostly mordernized , globalized and liberal in nature.
■ The economic policies of Thailand have increased and there is an expansion of both
local and foreign trade.

Infrastructure of Thailand
■ Infrastructure of Thailand is quite good compared to other countries.
■ Bangkok had a huge facelift in the past few years.
■ There have been huge improvement in rail, road and water transport.
■ The communication infrastructure of Thailand is quite impressive in
nature.
■ Thai government has formulated a long-term infrastructure plan to
meet the demands and requirements of a newly industrialized country.

Monetary policy of Thailand
■ The bank of Thailand is known to meet every six weeks in order to
determine the level of the monetary policy target variable.
■ The main objective of the monetary policy is to maintain the stability
of price by keeping the inflation within the target rate.
■ The monetary policy made by the Bank of Thailand have important
impacts on the financial markets of the world and on the economic
growth.

Reference list
■ Bhandubanyong, P., & Pearce, J. T. (2017). Appraisal of SME Casting
Industry in Thailand. ISJET, 1.
■ Kuroiwa, I., & Techakanont, K. (2016). Formation of Automotive
Manufacturing Clusters in Thailand. ERIA Discussion Paper, 32.
■ Nidhiprabha, B. (2018). Macroeconomic Policy for Emerging Markets:
Lessons from Thailand. Routledge.
■ Ramsay, A., & Doner, R. F. (2018). Thailand: From Economic Miracle to
Economic Crisis. In Asian Contagion (pp. 171-207). Routledge.