4.1 Barriers to investment access

The Thai Foreign Business Act includes three lists of business activities. Foreign legal persons are permitted to engage in List Two if they can meet the following two requirements: (1) Thai nationals or non-foreign nationals according to the Act have the ownership of no less than 40 percent in the foreign-funded companies (the Minister of Commerce can relax the regulation of ownership according to the decision of the Cabinet for due reasons, but the ownership should not be less than 25 percent); (2) Thai nationals should have over 2/5 of directors on the board in foreign-funded enterprises. Thai ownership should not be lower than 51 percent in the areas of agriculture, animal husbandry, fishery, exploration and mining and in the service sector stipulated in the Foreign Business Act of 1999. When foreign juridical persons start business operation in the industries where foreign investment needs permission according to Foreign Business Act, the minimum investment should be no less than Baht 3 million. No less than Baht 2 million of foreign investment is required in other industries.

4.2 Barriers to investment operation

Land ownership by foreigners is prohibited in Thailand except that the land is used for industries encouraged by the Thai Board of Investment.

Thailand lifted the restrictions on export volume and the proportions of local content of parts and raw materials in investment measures so as to keep in line with the stipulations in international trade and investment agreement, but restrictions on local content still remain in the production of dairy products, and the assembly of auto engines and motorcycles.