Thailand's flood-hit SMEs expected to resume businesses in mid-2012

BANGKOK, November 26 (TNA) - Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have been affected by Thailand's massive floods over the past couple of months, are expected to resume their operations in mid 2012. Thai Industry Minister Wannarat Channukul said on Saturday that operators of the flood-affected SMEs are expected to complete repairs on their plants and machineries, as well as their laying out flood prevention measures by next April; so, their operations should resume thereafter. Dr. Wannarat acknowledged that as of November 25, more than 550 SMEs operators in 31 flood-hit Thai provinces had officially registered with his ministry's Department of Industrial Promotion and total damage to Thailand's all flood-stricken SMEs has been initially estimated at over 60 billion baht. The Thai industry minister insisted that foreign investors, including Japanese, still have high confidence in Thailand and will not relocate their production base elsewhere, despite flood-borne damages inflicted on their plants; while the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) also announced that no foreign investors have sought to revoke promotional privileges so far. According to the BOI, international investors requesting for its promotional privileges had valued over 478.7 billion baht totally during the first 10 months of this year, a year-on-year surge of more than 23 per cent, and the value will likely jump to about 500 million baht by the end of this year. (TNA)