Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 7 January 2026 the National Semiconductor and Advanced Electronics Industry Policy Committee (the "Semiconductor Board"), chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Ekniti Nitithanprapas, endorsed the Draft National Strategy for the Development of the Semiconductor and Advanced Electronics Industry, prepared by the Board of Investment (BOI) with Roland Berger after a public hearing in October 2025. The 25-year roadmap (2026-2050) targets more than THB 2.5 trillion (~USD 79.6 billion) in investment, training of more than 230,000 highly-skilled engineers, and construction of a complete upstream-to- downstream semiconductor ecosystem with phased milestones for 2030, 2040 and 2050. The strategy prioritises five product groups where Thailand has competitive potential — Power chips, Sensors, Photonics, Analog and Discrete chips — and explicitly aims to move the country beyond OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) into IC design and upstream wafer fabrication ("Made-in-Thailand chips"). Implementation runs through a five-pillar BOI support mechanism: long-term low-interest financing and grants, human-capital development, technology upgrade of the Microelectronics Technology Centre (TMEC), specialised industrial clusters with guaranteed renewable-energy and water security, and streamlined regulatory approvals including a new BOI "FastPass" fast-track facility (16 pilot projects worth THB 170 billion already processed).

Thailand's Board of Investment issued Notification No. 9/2568 on 14 November 2025, amending the Activity List Eligible for Investment Promotion by splitting the prior single data-center category into two tiers based on power-usage efficiency: high-efficiency data centers (PUE ≤ 1.3) qualify for an 8-year corporate income tax (CIT) exemption, while other data centers receive a 5-year CIT exemption. A precursor restructure (Notification No. 5/2568, 5 June 2025) first introduced the two-tier category split; Notification 9/2568 added location-differentiated terms based on the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). New benefit conditions require applicants to submit a Thailand-benefit plan — training programmes, academic/R&D partnerships, local supply-chain support, or knowledge transfer to Thai nationals — that must be implemented before CIT exemption benefits can be exercised.

Thailand's Board of Investment issued Notification No. Sor. 5/2568 (5/2025), dated 5 June 2025, amending the Schedule of Investment-Promoted Activities under BOI Notification No. 9/2565 across roughly 32 activity categories, including machinery and automotive, electrical appliances and electronics, metals and materials, public utilities, digital, and creative industries. The revision extends standard BOI tax and import-duty investment-promotion incentives to accumulator/battery-cell manufacturing activities within these categories, while discontinuing promoted status for metal-cutting activities (Category 5.4.10). The notification applies to investment- promotion applications submitted on or after 1 July 2025, and was later published in the Royal Gazette on 22 January 2026.

Thailand's Board of Investment issued Announcement No. Por. 8/2568, dated 20 May 2025, setting new criteria for approving foreign-worker positions, placing foreign staff into approved positions, and extending position/ personnel terms under Sections 25-26 of the Investment Promotion Act. The announcement requires BOI-promoted manufacturing projects with more than 100 employees to keep Thai nationals at 70% or more of the workforce (verified via Social Security filings), and sets minimum monthly salary floors for foreign hires (THB 150,000 for executives, THB 75,000 for managers/specialists, reduced to THB 50,000 with a relevant degree). It replaces the prior Por. 3/2567 announcement (9 August 2024).

On 8 December 2022 the Thai Board of Investment issued Announcement No. 8/2565 "Policies and Criteria for Investment Promotion", setting Thailand's five-year (2023-2027) horizontal investment-promotion strategy. The Announcement entered into force from 8:30 a.m. on 3 January 2023 and applies to all investment-promotion applications filed with the BOI from that date. The strategy reorients Thailand's investment regime around three core concepts — (i) innovation, technology and creativity, (ii) competitiveness and rapid adaptability, and (iii) inclusiveness, including environmental and social sustainability — and is operationalised through seven pillars: industrial transition to BCG (Bio-Circular-Green) / smart industries, regional-hub positioning (EV, electronics, food, medical, aviation, automation), supply-chain strengthening, technology upgrading, SME competitiveness, sustainable development, and BCG-economy alignment. Incentives are structured into Group A (corporate-income-tax exemption for 3-13 years, with Group A1+ activities — frontier-technology semiconductors, advanced biotech, certain EV components — receiving up to 10-13 years CIT exemption with no cap) and Group B (non-tax incentives only). Fundamental eligibility criteria carried over from prior regimes: minimum THB 1 million investment, new-machinery requirement, 20% annual revenue-growth projection, and a 3:1 debt-to-equity threshold. The 8 December 2022 release was accompanied by 16 additional implementing announcements (Announcements 9/2565 to 24/2565) covering specific activity lists and merit-based incentives. This is the umbrella framework under which Thailand's subsequent sector-specific BOI instruments operate — the EV 3.5 package (2023-12-19, effective 2024-01-01), the EV Board HEV manufacturing excise incentives (2024-07-26), and the National Semiconductor and Advanced Electronics Industry Strategy (2026-01-07) all sit inside this 2023-2027 investment-promotion regime.