Investment surging in Bio-Circular-Green projects

Investments in projects that are part of Thailand’s Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economy surged to over $20 billion during the first nine months of this year and are expected to keep growing amid the Kingdom’s transition to more sustainable development.

“BCG will play an important role in leading Thailand, through innovation, towards sustainable development goals,” said Duangjai Asawachintachit, Secretary-General of the Board of Investment (BOI).

The Kingdom’s 20-year national development strategy, dubbed Thailand 4.0, is designed to pursue a greener, higher technology, more creative brand of economic growth fueled by research and development. The goal is to create a more competitive, equitable and sustainable economy and society.

“The Thai government has joined the international community to adopt more environmentally-friendly measures, including de-carbonization plans,’’ Duangjai said.

The projects that had the highest investments were in renewable energy development and waste-to-energy power plant projects, with investment value of $8.65 billion among the top five BCG projects.

Thailand is the leading producer of solar and wind power in Southeast Asia.

Since the Board began considering BCG projects several years ago, it has granted approvals worth $20.28 billion. From January to September, the BOI approved 564 BCG projects, a rise of 74 percent year-on-year. The investment value skyrocketed by 160 percent year-on-year to $3.84 billion.

Duangjai added that the project numbers and their value would surely to increase as BCG is a global trend and is now an essential part of the national agenda. The Board expects BCG to make up 25 percent of economic output over the next five years, she said.

Photo courtesy of: https://thaiembdc.org/bio-circular-green-bcg/