“The significant increase in applications for partnership business registrations in January reflects the improving state of the economy under the government’s economic stimulus measures, such as the Village Fund to strengthen the Thai economic fundamentals, and state investments in large infrastructure projects such as mass transit, which will gradually come on stream,” Rattana said.

“The economy is projected to grow by 3.7 per cent this year, or within the range of 3.2-4.2 per cent. The Business Development Department expects at least 60,000-65,000 applications for business registrations this year in line with the improving economy.”

The combined registered capital of new business registrations in January was Bt28.20 billion, down from Bt26.44 billion, or by 48 per cent, from December. This is because last month, one public company accounted for more than Bt15 billion in registered capital, an increase of Bt9.58 billion, or 51 per cent over January 2015, Rattana said.

The top five new business |registrations were related to |general construction, property development, management |consulting service, construction-material distribution and |machinery sales and distribution, she said.

On January 31, 2015, the total number of partnership business registrations was 1,301,770, with combined registered capital of Bt19.84 trillion. The total number of partnership businesses nationwide was 621,692, with combined registered capital of Bt15.50 trillion, consisting of 441,853 limited companies, 1,111 public listed firms and 178,728 registered ordinary partnership companies, Rattana said.