Thai Government continues to woo wealthy, capable foreigners

According to Ms Traisuree, a total of 2,920 foreigners applied for LTR visas from Nov 1 last year to Feb 28. European applicants, 940, formed the biggest group of LTR visa applicants, followed by 517 Americans and 325 Chinese people, reports Bangkok Post.

The applicants included 195 highly wealthy people, 1,011 wealthy retirees, 771 foreigners who want to work from Thailand, 390 specialists and 553 followers of those applicants. It was not specified how many of those applications had been approved.

In a separate development, the Board of Investment (BOI) had already offered promotional privileges to about 500 projects of foreign companies to build their regional headquarters in Thailand, with a combined investment of B13 billion.

Most of the companies were from Japan, the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong and France. Well-known companies included Agoda, Huawei Technologies, Arçelik Hitachi, Ajinomoto, Nissin Foods, Alstom, Toyota Motor and Nippon Steel.

From their planned regional hubs in Thailand, the companies would supervise and support the operations of their subsidiaries in countries in the same region.

The government wanted to attract such regional headquarters as well as wealthy and capable foreigners to the country so that they would transfer knowledge and innovations to Thai people working with them, the spokeswoman said.

The LTR visa program, which provides tax breaks and other financial incentives, was introduced in 2022. As reported by state news agency NNT in February this year, the government aims to attract 1 million applicants over the next five years. This presumes an average of 16,666 applications per month which Thailand is yet to come close to. 

To achieve the targert, the BOI is looking to enlist private firms to promote the new 10-year visas. 

"Collaborating with private firms to promote the program locally and globally is an excellent opportunity for Thailand to increase its foreign investment and attract skilled professionals and high-net-worth individuals," NNT said in the report without providing any details.