Banjongjitt Angsusingh, director-general of the Business Development Department, said more investors were expected to start new companies in the remaining months of this year as a result from the government’s investment-promotion measures and strong tourism growth.
“Thailand will maintain the momentum of promoting investment under a strategy to develop the local economy and increase employment. The plan to encourage the setting up of start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises will help increase investment,” she said.
The department expects most of the new companies will be in the construction, property-development, restaurant, consultancy, and machinery businesses. The number of new business registrations in September declined by 2 per cent to 6,076 companies., while initial investment capital was down 51 per cent year on year to 22,429 firms
The department claims that its measures to facilitate new enterprises have also resulted in the establishment of more new businesses. These include the Transaction Security Act and the one-person-company legislation.
The Commerce Ministry expects gross domestic product to grow by 3.2-3.5 per cent this year, which will encourage strong business expansion, with the department expecting about 60,000-65,000 new registrations this year. However, Bangjongjitt said some risks remained that could affect enterprises’ decisions to expand their businesses, including the sluggish export sector and fluctuating oil prices, as these factors could affect spending power.
The department also reported that 11,835 companies closed in the first nine months, down by 0.2 per cent year on year. A total of 639,907 companies are actively operating in the country, of which 1,149 are public companies.