Economic review Thailand 1st half 2017
The Netherlands Embassy in Bangkok regularly publishes economic reviews about Thailand, Thai-Dutch bilateral trade and investment and our business support services to Dutch companies. This is our review on the first half of 2017.
The Thai government focuses on adding value to its economy by promoting innovation in its most important industries, such as agriculture, biotechnology, life sciences & health and logistics.
To attract innovative technologies from foreign companies, Thailand has beefed up its investment incentive packages (providing interesting opportunities for Dutch companies) and is trying to cut down on bureaucracy and red tape. In the coming years the Thai economy will continue to further improve slowly, with GDP growth in 2017 expected to reach 3.5 to 4.0%.
The first half of 2017 is marked by a steep increase in number of trade requests with 559 request in 2017 H1 compared to 900 requests in 2016. Agriculture continues to be our main sector, but other sectors, such as water, life sciences, energy and the creative industries, are catching up.
For more information on the Thai economy, bilateral trade and investment and our business support, please refer to the attached document.