Thailand’s Economic Policy Committee recently approved “Thailand FastPass” project to unlock 480 billion baht BOI projects under its ‘Quick Big Win Policy’ to expedite large investment projects in strategic sectors such as the data center, industrial estate, clean energy, and electronics sectors, according to a press release on the Board of Investment website. Central to the revitalisation of Thailand’s economy are three measures, namely “Thailand FastPass” mechanism, training of 100,000 skilled professionals and enhancing Thai entrepreneurs’ competitiveness globally, said Ekniti Nitithanprapas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
Under ““Thailand FastPass” mechanism, necessary legal reforms will be introduced to address long-standing regulatory obstacles, and sufficient clean energy will be provided to meet investors’ needs, enabling major investments to move forward quickly. The BOI will be empowered to bring in additional relevant agencies to remove obstacles and speed up approval process by 20-50 per cent. To be ready for service by December 2025, the relevant agencies include the Office of the Energy Regulatory Commission (OERC), Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), and Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA). The BOI will also monitor agencies’ Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to remove obstacles.
In order to address investment issues, the BOI has selected 80 large projects with significant economic impact, primarily in the data center, clean energy, electric vehicle, and PCB industries, with a combined value of over 480 billion baht. These pilot projects are large projects that received approval during 2023-2025 and have faced common issues, such as power supply and clean energy, land availability, and visa and work permit, hindering them from moving forward with their investments. To resolve the issues, we directed that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to expedite the issuance of the regulations on bond requirements for the use of the electricity network and criteria for Utility Green Tariff Type 2 and the Pilot Program for Direct Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreements (Direct PPA) by December 2025, said Ekniti.
Some of the matters to be expedited include the quick issuance of electricity supply confirmation letters to ensure power for data center investments. The electricity authorities would also have to develop power grid expansion plans to support upcoming major investment projects.
Where land is concerned, the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning will closely collaborate with the Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand and Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand to review and update the master city plan and community plan to earmark available areas for the expansion of emerging industries by March 2026.
The Department of Employment will have to strengthen the e-work permit system, to enable seamless services for foreign highly skilled professionals at One Stop Service Center for Visa and Work Permit (OSS) by January 2026. The government also created a 5 billion baht capability enhancement fund targeting 100,000 professionals to be upskilled with new skills to meet the demands of new-generation industries.
The government will subsidise 30-50 per cent of capital investments for companies with at least 51 percent Thai ownership to improve business efficiency through new-generation technologies, research and development, and transformation toward new or green industries, with a maximum of 100 million baht per company.