Thailand BOI has announced that it would allow 101 companies registered with the Ministry of Labour to continue hiring unskilled foreign workers until 31 December 2012, extended from 31 May 2012 as per an earlier announcement. In addition, incentives for machinery and technology improvement for increased production capacity will also be extended until the end of this year. This measure is a part of the government’s efforts to help manufacturers affected by the massive flood last year.
This measure will help reduce the impact from the labour shortage in the country although it is just for temporary period only because the BOI also considered Thailand to be moving from labour-intensive to high technology industries so that the need for unskilled labour would be less in the long run. As a result, the board resolved to maintain its policy of not promoting the employment of unskilled foreign workers.
As the BOI had earlier announced its measures allowing the 101 BOI-promoted companies which have registered with Ministry of Labour to hire unskilled labour until 31 May 2012, it further extended this period until the end of this year. The extension was aimed at giving the entrepreneurs sufficient time to prepare for the changes and ease the burden caused by last year flood.
Considering this as a significant agenda for the country, the Board will further discuss this issue with related government agencies in order to prevent or find a solution to possible future labour shortage problems.