After an economic ministers’ meeting, the Thai government revealed its projection for 3% gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2024. This forecast was higher than previous ones announced by the central bank and the planning agency. If this goal materializes, it will be the fastest pace of economic growth in six years. Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said that Thailand targets 36.7 million tourists this year, 1 million more than the previous estimate, which could help boost GDP to an ambitious 3%.
In addition to tourism, Pichai added that the Board of Investment (BOI) will also push for 40 billion baht worth of projects to start by the end of 2024, coming from 800 billion baht worth of already approved investment applications. The BOI approved another eight large projects last month worth a combined 56.95 billion baht,focusing on data centers and power plants.
This news arrives as the BOI is accelerating its plan to promote investment in data centers and cloud services in Thailand. The BOI recognizes the interest of American tech companies to invest in Thailand because the government has offered attractive investment incentive packages and demonstrated clear policy intent to attract foreign investment in the digital technology space.
Indeed, Thailand’s strategy to attract foreign investment has been very successful this year, reaching 71.7 billion baht in the first five months of the year. The Ministry of Commerce announced that this jump marks a 58 percent increase from last year. With such encouraging FDI trends and the expected boost in tourism revenue, Thailand may have an opportunity to U-turn its disappointing post-pandemic economic recovery performance.
