For the past several years, Japan has been the leading foreign investor in the Kingdom. According to figures from the Thailand Board of Investment, Japan invested in 389 projects in the Thailand from January - June 2012. The total investment of 176,298 million baht was up by 144% over the same period last year. The second largest investor was Singapore with 69 projects totaling 18,096 million baht, an increase of 9%, followed by Malaysia with 17 projects worth 11,352 million baht, up 156%.

The industries that have been most interested in applying through the BOI are as follows:  Manufacturing and fabrication of metal products, machinery and transportation equipment, electronics and electrical, services and utilities, chemicals, plastics, paper, agriculture and agricultural products. In the ASEAN region, Thailand is the number one destination for Japanese entrepreneurs whether through small, medium or large size companies. This has resulted in the supporting industry in Thailand being partially offset by new Japanese investors looking for partners. It has helped enhance the competitiveness of Thai entrepreneurs internationally.

SUBCON Thailand 2013 – the leading industrial Subcontracting exhibition for the purchase of industrial parts – is organised by Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) and UBM Asia (Thailand). The objective is to create opportunities for part makers in the automotive, machinery, electrical and electronics industry and enable them to join business matchmaking activities - matching domestic and international manufacturers with part buyers from over 15 countries which include companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Samsung Electronics, Isuzu Motors, Whirlpool, Thai Summit Autoparts Industry, Suzuki, Electrolux, Panasonic Motor and Honda Trading Asian. SUBCON Thailand 2012 has to date been able to match 3,109 pairs with business transactions totaling over 5.4 billion baht.

Mr. Narucha Ruchuphan, the director of the Business Unit for Industrial Linkage Development (BUILD) from Thailand Board of Investment recently said: "SUBCON Thailand’s 7th edition in 2013 will continue its collaboration with UBM Asia (Thailand) and will expand the show’s positioning as a major international subcontracting event with particularly emphasis on the opening of the AEC in 2015. BOI offices in 13 countries around the world will coordinate and invite industrial part buyers to attend this major event. One of the key strategies will be to continue welcoming Japanese investors. And of course we will also invite other ASEAN countries in the region to exhibit and take part in the special business matchmaking opportunities available at SUBCON Thailand."

Mr. Sanchai Noombunnam, Project Director at UBM Asia (Thailand) said, "Our recent visit to Japan to promote SUBCON Thailand and INTERMACH 2013 with the BOI and Alliance of Supporting Industry Association was an overwhelming success. Japanese SMEs were interested to learn about investing in Thailand and keen to find Thai partners. They will be visiting SUBCON Thailand 2013. This positive success has encouraged us to visit Japan twice a year in order to promote the shows. We will also increase promotional activities to advance recognition for SUBCON Thailand 2013 and INTERMACH 2013 in other buyer countries."