European investors are increasingly playing a bigger role in the Thai economy, allowing the Southeast Asian country to diversify trade and business away from the United States and China, analysts say.
In 2020, European Union investment accounted for 8.2% of all overseas investment in Thailand, compared with 3.8% for the US and 15.4% for China. The figure has increased each year from just 4.4% in 2016.
The bloc is also Thailand’s fourth-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth €29 billion ($35 billion) in 2020.
“There are signs that things are picking up again between the two as both look for opportunities to increase trade and investment in an effort to diversify from over reliance on China as a market,” said Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist for the Asia-Pacific region at Natixis investment bank.
Paul Chamber from Thailand’s Naresuan University’s Center of Asean…
