Must a foreign manufacturer use the BOI route?

Not necessarily — most manufacturing is not itself on the FBA restricted lists, so a plain limited company plus a factory licence can operate. What the BOI buys is the tax holiday, land ownership and staffing conveniences. If the business also falls into FBA List 3 (own distribution, services), an FBL or a Thai joint venture is separately required. The right sequence is to test your activity list against the FBA and the BOI activity tables item by item, then choose the route.

Can a foreign company own factory land in Thailand?

Through three channels: a BOI-promoted company (land for the promoted activity, to be sold within 1 year of cessation — six manufacturing categories excluded since 2025); an approved operator inside an IEAT estate (regardless of BOI status, 3-year disposal window); and a foreign entity inside an EEC special promotion zone. Outside those, lease only: registered leases cap at 30 years generally, 30–50 years inside commercial/industrial zones or estates, and 50+49 years in EEC special promotion zones.

How long from decision to a BOI certificate?

The statutory clock is 40–90 working days by investment size, running from a complete filing; with preparation and clarification rounds, the realistic end-to-end is 4–6 months. Operations must commence within about 3 years of the certificate.

Business-landing case · Thailand

Setting up a factory in Thailand: BOI promotion, industrial estates, land and premises

This page is the first case in this site's business-landing track: how the rules actually work for a foreign manufacturer setting up in Thailand. The core structure in one sentence — promotion is granted per activity, not per company: a BOI certificate covers only the activity named on it, and the same company's side trading or services business is still tested under the Foreign Business Act (FBA). A promoted activity may be 100% foreign-owned (outside FBA List 1 and a few specific-law reservations), with corporate income tax exemption by group — A1+ up to 10–13 years uncapped, A1/A2 eight years, the B groups carrying non-tax incentives only. EEC and estate bonuses stack on top, subject to caps. Land and ready-built factory prices for the Eastern Economic Corridor (Chachoengsao, Chonburi, Rayong), setup costs and the statutory decision clock are set out item by item below, with source grades on the metric cards. The 2025–26 changes are material: the BOI land privilege was withdrawn for six manufacturing categories, BOI foreign-staff salary floors were introduced, and nominee shareholding was criminalised in an institutionalised crackdown — all in the "what changed" section.

Key numbers

Serviced industrial land asking price (national average)

8.31–8.65 THB M/rai

Verified range As of: 2026-09-30 Source: Cushman & Wakefield, Thailand Industrial MarketBeat (Q1–Q3 2026)

Ready-built factory rent (prime EEC estates)

150–220 THB/sqm/mo

Verified range As of: 2026-09-30 Source: Cushman & Wakefield, Thailand Industrial MarketBeat (Q1–Q3 2026)

Minimum daily wage (three EEC provinces)

400 THB/day

Verified Stale data As of: 2025-07-01 Source: Thailand Wage Committee Notification No. 14 (Royal Gazette, 17 Jun 2025; in force 1 Jul 2025)

BOI statutory decision clock (from complete filing)

40–90 working days

Verified range As of: 2026-11-08 Source: Board of Investment of Thailand, Investment Promotion Guide 2026 and Announcements Por. 3/2568, Sor. 7/2568

Plain limited-company setup cost (first year, professionally handled)

80,000–160,000 THB

Operator estimate As of: 2026-11-08 Source: Board of Investment of Thailand, Investment Promotion Guide 2026 and Announcements Por. 3/2568, Sor. 7/2568

Why Thailand first

Thailand is this track's first case because its rule density is the highest and the most codified: BOI promotion, EEC stacking, IEAT estate land ownership and the FBA foreign-business regime interlock, and any "Thailand factory guide" covering only one of the four is incomplete.

For China- and ASEAN-linked supply chains, the practical position is: the three EEC provinces concentrate the automotive, electronics and data-centre chains; industrial land keeps rising (+10% in 2025); mature estates have run out of saleable land — both the window and the cost base are moving, and prices deserve quarterly re-checks.

BOI promotion: granted per activity

Promotion attaches to the activity: each promoted activity has its own certificate and its own tax accounting. Business outside the certificate (a trading or services arm of the same company) gets no ownership relief and is still FBA-tested. Instead of a Foreign Business License, a promoted foreign company files for a Foreign Business Certificate (FBC) under FBA §12 — a notification, not a discretionary approval.

100% foreign ownership is available for promoted activities in all groups except FBA List 1 (strictly prohibited: media, land trading, rice farming and similar) and activities reserved by other specific laws. Exception from 1 September 2025: bag manufacturing, furniture and furniture parts, and printing require at least 51% Thai natural-person shareholding to be promoted at all (waived in Border SEZs).

A1+: CIT exemption of 10–13 years, uncapped (top-priority/R&D-heavy, merit-stacked)
A1: 8 years, uncapped; A2: 8 years, capped at 100% of investment excluding land and working capital
A3: 5 years (same cap); A4: 3 years (same cap)
B1/B2: no CIT exemption; non-tax incentives only (B1 includes machinery and export raw-material duty relief)
All groups: machinery import-duty exemption, duty exemption on raw materials for export production, land-ownership permission (below), expedited visas and work permits
Merit-based top-ups (R&D, advanced-technology training, technology licensing) add years — that is how A1+ reaches 13; area-based top-ups exist for the 20 lowest-income provinces

EEC stacking: two axes, one branch each

Projects in the EEC provinces (Chachoengsao, Chonburi, Rayong) in target activities A1+–A4 can stack two axes on the base promotion, one branch each: an HRD/R&D axis (extra exemption scaled by tier) and a location axis. The location axis is either (a) the designated zones (EECa, EECi, EECd, EECmd, EECg, EECtp) or (b) any industrial estate or promoted industrial zone in the three provinces.

The estate sales line that "everyone gets one extra year" is wrong: under the BOI Guide's EEC table, the estate branch adds +1 year only for A1+, A3 and A4 — A1 and A2 get nothing; under the designated-zone branch A1+ can add up to 2 more years, while A1/A2 take an "8-year exemption or 50% reduction for 5 years" structure. Caps: a project already granted more than 8 years of exemption cannot stack further §35(1) exemption, and EEC Policy Committee rights cannot be double-claimed with BOI rights.

The EEC Act adds: a 17% flat personal income tax for qualifying foreign experts, land ownership inside special promotion zones, and leases of 50 years plus a 49-year renewal (effectively 99) in those zones. Rayong projects must also comply with BOI Announcement Por. 1/2554 on environmental siting.

The non-BOI routes: FBL and the Treaty of Amity

The FBA structure: a Thai-registered company counts as foreign at 50% or more foreign shares. List 1 is closed with no licence available. List 2 (security, culture, natural resources) needs the Minister of Commerce plus Cabinet approval and usually at least 40% Thai holding. List 3 (retail, wholesale, construction, most services and a catch-all "other services") requires a Foreign Business License from the DBD — a statutory 60-day window, realistically 3–6 months, and discretionary. Minimum capital: THB 2 million for a foreign company in non-restricted business; THB 3 million per restricted activity under an FBL, fully paid up. Fees: THB 2,000 to apply; the licence fee runs at THB 5 per THB 1,000 of registered capital, minimum THB 20,000, maximum THB 250,000.

US citizens and majority-US-owned companies receive national treatment under the Treaty of Amity: up to 100% ownership in most FBA-restricted sectors without an FBL (an FBC registration is still required). Excluded: communications, domestic transport, banking and insurance underwriting, land exploitation and natural resources, and defence. The process (DBD registration plus US Embassy certification) takes about 2–4 months.

Land and factories: three ownership channels, capped leases

Foreign land ownership is prohibited in principle, with three codified channels: (1) the BOI channel — a promoted company may own the land its promoted activity needs, in an amount the BOI deems appropriate (Investment Promotion Act §27); on cessation or transfer the land must be sold within 1 year. (2) The IEAT channel — a foreign operator approved in an industrial estate may own land inside the estate regardless of BOI status (IEAT Act §44); the disposal window on cessation is 3 years. (3) The EEC channel — foreign entities in special promotion zones may own land for the permitted business (EEC Act §49). The 2025 withdrawal of the land privilege for six manufacturing categories is in the changes section.

If leasing instead: a registered lease under the Civil and Commercial Code caps at 30 years, and renewals are contractual promises, not automatically enforceable rights — the Supreme Court has voided pre-stacked renewals (e.g. Decision 4655/2566), so "30+30" is a new contract at expiry. Two exceptions: the 1999 Act on leases for commercial and industrial purposes permits registered leases of 30–50 years on land in commercial/industrial zones or industrial estates; and EEC special promotion zones allow 50 years plus one 49-year renewal. A general 99-year lease law remained unenacted as of early 2026.

Prices (2026 basis; grades on the metric cards): the national average asking price for serviced industrial land reached THB 8.65M/rai in Q3 2026 (Cushman & Wakefield), with prime EEC estates far above it; ready-built factories in prime EEC estates run about THB 150–220/sqm/month, older stock THB 130–170. Operators such as Amata and WHA publish no official price lists — the figures here come from IEAT's official estate pages, SET-filed analyst research and Cushman & Wakefield market reports, with the basis stated on each metric card.

Amata City Chonburi: general-industry plots about THB 11.5–12.5M/rai (market-analysis basis); data-centre plots 13.5–14.5M/rai
Amata City Rayong (Free Zone): THB 7.5M/rai; WHA Eastern Industrial Estate, Map Ta Phut (IEAT page): THB 9.95M/rai
WHA's blended realised average selling price in 1H26 was THB 4.7M/rai — skewed by lower-priced estates; do not read it as an EEC price
EEC scarcity is measurable: of about 69,992 rai saleable/leasable across the 26 promotion-zone estates, only about 13,814 rai is "developable", and 6 mature Chonburi estates have zero saleable area left; about 20,290 rai of new supply is scheduled for 2026–27

Setup: process and costs

A plain limited company: registration takes 2–4 weeks, and from 1 November 2026 all filings run online through DBD Biz Regist. Government fees, at THB 500 of memorandum fee per THB 100,000 of registered capital, total roughly THB 7,500–18,000 for a company capitalised at THB 2–3M; professional formation fees run THB 25,000–60,000; a professionally handled first-year total is realistically THB 80,000–160,000.

The BOI route: no government application fee; professional fees for the application typically run THB 100,000–500,000 (one law/accounting source quotes 180,000–250,000); company registration THB 5,000–50,000 by capital. The statutory clock runs from complete filing: 40 working days up to THB 200M of investment, 60 up to THB 2B (sub-committee), 90 beyond (full Board). The result is notified within 7 days; accept within 1 month; request the certificate within 6 months (issued within 10 working days); commence operations within about 3 years. End to end, including preparation and clarification rounds, realistically 4–6 months. Minimum investment is THB 1 million excluding land and working capital; new projects need a debt-to-equity ratio of at most 3:1 and roughly 20% value-added; a feasibility study is required above THB 750 million. Applications are online-only via BOI e-Investment.

One more licence: a manufacturer also needs a Factory Licence (Ror Ngor 4) from the Department of Industrial Works — BOI promotion does not replace it; inside IEAT estates, the estate's one-stop service handles most permits. The non-BOI work-permit rule of thumb is THB 2 million of paid-up capital plus 4 Thai employees per foreign work permit; BOI companies use the One Start One Stop centre with relaxed ratios, subject to the salary floors in the next section.

What changed in 2025–2026 (each item verified)

BOI land privilege withdrawn for six manufacturing categories (Announcement Sor. 7/2568, effective 1 September 2025): non-ferrous metal rolling/drawing/casting/forging (5.4.9), ferrous metal products and parts (5.4.11.2), non-ferrous metal products and parts for industrial use (5.4.11.4), other metal products (5.4.11.5), industrial chemicals (6.2) and plastic products/parts for industrial use (6.4.1) no longer receive the land-ownership privilege on new applications; existing promoters with at least 3 promoted projects in 2011–2025 totalling at least THB 5 billion under one entity are exempted. The same announcement adds the 51% Thai-shareholding condition for bags, furniture and printing
BOI foreign-staff salary floors (Office Announcement Por. 8/2568): minimum monthly salaries for foreign staff on contracts of 6 months or more — executives THB 150,000; managers, engineers, IT and researchers THB 75,000 (THB 50,000 with a relevant bachelor's degree); operations staff THB 50,000; operators THB 35,000. Manufacturers with more than 100 employees must keep at least 70% Thai staff. Applies from 1 October 2025 to certificates issued on or after 5 June 2025, and from 1 January 2026 to earlier certificates
Data-centre tiers restructured (Sor. 5/2568 in June 2025 and Sor. 9/2568 in November 2025): two tiers by PUE/GPU capability with EEC/non-EEC differentiation (Tier 1: A2 outside the EEC / A3 inside; Tier 2: A3/A4). The promoted-activity list was revised again in 2026 (Sor. 1/2569)
Seven services removed from FBA permission (ministerial regulation in the Royal Gazette, 28 August 2026): Type-1 telecom services, treasury centres, intra-group administrative/HR/IT services, intra-group domestic debt guarantees, space leasing for electronic financial equipment and vending machines, petroleum drilling under direct contracts, and certain securities/derivatives activities no longer need foreign-business permission
The nominee crackdown institutionalised: nominee shareholding is a criminal offence (FBA §36, up to 3 years' imprisonment); DBD Order No. 2/2569 (effective 1 August 2026) requires Thai shareholders in foreign-linked companies to evidence genuine share payment with 3 months of bank statements; about 47,000 companies were targeted in the 2025–26 sweep
Minimum wage: no increase for 2026. Rates remain Wage Committee Notification No. 14 (in force 1 July 2025): 17 tiers from THB 337 to 400 per day, with all three EEC provinces at the top THB 400 tier alongside Bangkok, Phuket and the Koh Samui district. A March 2026 review was shelved and no 2027 rate had been announced as of October 2026

Risks & divergences

The scope of Sor. 7/2568 is read differently by major firms: Tilleke & Gibbins reads the land-privilege restriction as applying to foreign-majority-owned companies, while CTAC's reading of the Thai text draws the line by activity category with no shareholding qualifier. The two readings give opposite answers for a Thai-majority company in the same six categories — this page shows the divergence instead of settling it, pending the Gazette original. Land planning in those six categories should rest on a written BOI answer.What would flip this: Once an authoritative reading of the Gazette text (or a written BOI position) is in hand, this item is updated accordingly and the divergence note removed.

Nominee structures have moved from grey practice to criminal exposure: from 1 August 2026 Thai shareholders must evidence genuine payment with 3 months of bank statements, and about 47,000 companies sit in the sweep. Legacy structures that used nominees to skirt the FBA — including some operating factories — face retrospective scrutiny; no new structure can touch this line.What would flip this: An enforcement-posture risk that does not flip case by case; legacy structures need individual compliance reviews.

EEC land scarcity and price momentum: mature estates have no land left to sell, the national average has risen two years running (+10% in 2025), and the 20,290 rai of new supply lands only in 2026–27 — a three-year land budget built on today's price table will systematically understate cost.What would flip this: If Cushman & Wakefield's average turns down after the new supply releases, the price sections here are updated quarterly.

What we have not verified

The following items have not been fully verified; the reason is noted for each.

Amata and WHA publish no official price lists: estate-level land prices rest on IEAT pages, SET-filed analyst research and property market analysis. Individual figures (for example Amata Chonburi general-industry land at 11.5–12.5M/rai) are market-analysis indications, not operator quotes — obtain the estate's formal quotation before negotiating.
The BOI Guide 2026 EEC table for the designated-zone branch was extracted from a mirrored PDF of the official guide for this check (the content matches the published guide's structure); until it is re-read word for word against the boi.go.th original, the designated-zone figures are carried as "per the Guide".
The shareholding-qualifier divergence on Sor. 7/2568 (Tilleke vs CTAC) awaits the Gazette original — see the risks section.

FAQ

Must a foreign manufacturer use the BOI route?: Not necessarily — most manufacturing is not itself on the FBA restricted lists, so a plain limited company plus a factory licence can operate. What the BOI buys is the tax holiday, land ownership and staffing conveniences. If the business also falls into FBA List 3 (own distribution, services), an FBL or a Thai joint venture is separately required. The right sequence is to test your activity list against the FBA and the BOI activity tables item by item, then choose the route.
Can a foreign company own factory land in Thailand?: Through three channels: a BOI-promoted company (land for the promoted activity, to be sold within 1 year of cessation — six manufacturing categories excluded since 2025); an approved operator inside an IEAT estate (regardless of BOI status, 3-year disposal window); and a foreign entity inside an EEC special promotion zone. Outside those, lease only: registered leases cap at 30 years generally, 30–50 years inside commercial/industrial zones or estates, and 50+49 years in EEC special promotion zones.
How long from decision to a BOI certificate?: The statutory clock is 40–90 working days by investment size, running from a complete filing; with preparation and clarification rounds, the realistic end-to-end is 4–6 months. Operations must commence within about 3 years of the certificate.

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General information only — not legal, tax or investment advice. This site offers no incorporation handling and refers no estates, agents or law firms. Rules and prices follow the latest official publications and estates' formal quotations; verify with a licensed adviser before acting. Page updated 2026-11-08。This section is general information only — not immigration or tax advice. Program rules change frequently; before acting, rely on the official texts and a licensed adviser.