The rising labour cost, the ageing population, the political uncertainties, along with growing competition for foreign direct investments has left Thailand licking it wounds in the race for attracting investors to invest in Thailand.
Thailand, one of the few countries that had been the king of attracting FDI into the country over the past few decades, has started to lose its crown of being the top FDI recipient to the likes of the newcomer – Vietnam.
“Thailand’s FDI applications have fallen this year, bucking the regional trend as other ASEAN countries saw foreign interest returning with the economic reopening. FDI application plunged to US$3.8 billion in the first half of 2022, less than half of the $8.8 billion recorded in the first half of 2021,” Lee Ju Ye, analyst at Maybank in Singapore said.