Flying The Flag: The global expansion of Thai multinational corporations

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok. August 21, 2012. With $176 billion in foreign currency reserves, more than twice what is needed to pay its external debts, Thailand is well-positioned to support foreign direct investments by its indigenous businesses. However, this has not occurred; Thailand is a distant third among ASEAN countries in making foreign direct investments abroad, although the pace of FDI is increasing. Two exceptions are Indorama Ventures and CP Group, the executives of which described their companies' impressive expansions abroad, Indorama by purchasing foreign businesses, and CP by establishing businesses from scratch. The most interesting fact I learned is that Alabama is Indorama's lowest cost site today, an impressive achievement because Indorama has 39 operating sites in 15 countries on four continents. Who said that the US is uncompetitive?