Thailand among 'top four countries' for Japanese investors
Thailand remains one of the top four countries in which Japanese companies plan to invest in the next five to 10 years, reports the latest Japan External Trade Organisation survey.
Asked which markets they are planning to target in the next five to 10 years, China and India ranked highest among Japanese-affiliated manufacturers, followed by Thailand and Vietnam. The China market ranks highest in the electric- and electronic-parts category, while India tops the auto- and motorcycle-parts category.The survey, conducted last November and December, covered Japanese-affiliated manufacturers in six Asean countries - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam - as well as ones in China, Hong Kong, India, South Korea and Taiwan. It received valid responses from 1,332 companies. Of the respondents, 71.5 per cent posted an operating profit in 2006, down from 75.6 per cent in 2005. This reflected greater difficulties experienced by manufacturers last year from rising costs of materials and higher wages. The percentage of respondents planning to expand their business scale over the next few years was 58.2 per cent, down 4.2 per cent from 2005, but the percentage planning to maintain the scale of their existing business was higher that in 2005. Thirty-three per cent of firms in Asean countries with a production base in China - or with plans to open one - viewed Asean as a cheaper place to run a business. Nearly 74 per cent of respondents in China said production costs were the same as or higher than in 2005, with 33.9 per cent of firms reporting cost increases of 10 per cent or more. The chief reasons were rising prices for raw materials and procurement and higher wages.
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