New investment opportunities are seen in the Northeastern Economic Corridor (NeEC), where the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) believes that it will be able to move toward becoming the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Industry of ASEAN in the future.

The NeEC covers four provinces, namely Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, and Nong Khai. The target industrial clusters to get a boost in this economic corridor include the bio-industry, agro-industry, and food industry.

The BOI and its partners recently organized the event “New Economy, New Opportunities” in Nakhon Ratchasima to publicize the new investment promotion strategy (2023-2027) and promotion measures for investors in the northeastern region, with emphasis on BCG, bio, and agro industries.

BOI Secretary-General Narit Therdsteerasukdi said that northeastern Thailand has many special features. For instance, it covers the largest area in the country, and one-third of Thailand’s population live in this region. It is an important producing area of such major crops as tapioca, sugarcane, rice, and natural rubber. The Northeast connects with neighboring countries and serves as the gateway to the Mekong subregion. It is also famous for arts and culture, local wisdom, and creative industries.

He said that the BOI aims to promote target industries and encourage the private sector to take part in human resource development, as well as research, development, and innovation in the northeastern region. It also intends to promote investments in the form of clusters, linking with local agricultural materials, thus enabling the NeEC to build its bio-industrial investment base, or bio-complex, on a full-cycle basis.

The BOI will give a boost to the NeEC, so that it will play a leading role in helping develop all provinces in the Northeast and moving this regional area of Thailand toward becoming the BCG industrial capital of ASEAN.

During the first quarter of 2023, 24 projects, worth over 3.8 billion baht, sought investment promotion in the Northeast from the BOI. These projects involved mainly food processing and agro-industry.