Bangkok Bank moves forward with its Connecting ASEAN strategy
Bangkok Bank is facilitating foreign direct investment into Thailand and supporting government initiatives to attract long-term investment into the country through its Connecting ASEAN strategy which is also supporting Thai businesses as they expand across the region.
Bangkok Bank President Mr. Chartsiri Sophonpanich said Bangkok Bank’s Connecting ASEAN strategy is in line with government initiatives to attract long-term foreign direct investment into Thailand to stimulate the economy and drive innovation development, support the Bio-Circular-Green Economy policy and leverage the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) as a smart manufacturing and logistics hub for ASEAN.
“Bangkok Bank’s international customers are investing more in the development of new future-growth industries in Thailand, especially electric vehicles. Facilitating clients such as BYD, Great Wall Motors, and ChangAn as they establish their Southeast Asian production hubs in Thailand will help catalyze a new local parts supply chain and create new job opportunities. Such developments will help create new business and job opportunities for generations to come,” said Mr. Chartsiri.
Mr. Chartsiri said that Bangkok Bank has focused on facilitating trade and investment across Southeast Asia for more than a decade as the market presents strong growth opportunities for many industrial sectors, despite a global economic slowdown due to geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruption, climate change and other factors. Connecting ASEAN also serves to benefit the domestic economy by positioning Thailand as a key hub for building bridges between ASEAN and companies and investors across Asia and the rest of the world.
“ASEAN presents some of the strongest growth opportunities internationally thanks to its relatively young population of 650 million people, access to diverse and sophisticated markets, innovation centers, abundant natural resources and proximity to economic powerhouses India and China, as well as being on track to become the world’s fourth largest economy within 2030,” said Mr. Chartsiri.
“ASEAN provides local companies with significant opportunities at a time when other markets across the world are being significantly disrupted. Bangkok Bank is uniquely placed among Thai banks to help companies that want to expand regionally as for eight decades we have been building our regional and international network, local expertise, and business connections with countries across the region.”
“Thanks to our unparalleled regional network, with a presence in nine of ASEAN’s 10 markets, including our subsidiary PermataBank in Indonesia, Bangkok Bank Berhad in Malaysia and Bangkok Bank (China), as well as our branches in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, we go beyond supporting our customers’ international banking and finance needs by helping to connect them with potential business partners across the region,” said Mr. Chartsiri.
For the past eight decades, Bangkok Bank has supported all customer groups to achieve their goals at every stage of life. The Bank assists companies of all sizes to be able to compete, grow sustainably and reach their full potential. For individual customers, it provides financial security for families. For Thai SME, it provides financial services and funds for their business operations, while sharing beneficial information, knowledge, advice and business connections that can strengthen them and enable them to grow sustainably. These services can help businesses to overcome various obstacles and become leading companies in Thailand, with some expanding their businesses overseas, especially within ASEAN and Asia where the Bank has a wide network of branches.
“In addition to large corporate customers, a growing number of SME customers are engaging in cross-border trade. Many of them have been able to expand their businesses abroad with support from our international branch network, including our subsidiary banks. These businesses will play an increasingly important role in strengthening Thailand’s economy,” said Mr. Chartsiri.
Mr. Chartsiri said the Bank understands that not all customers are currently in a position to seize new opportunities as there is a group of customers who have not yet recovered from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the related economic slowdown. As a trusted partner and reliable close friend, the Bank will offer additional measures to assist SME and individual customers affected by the economic situation to get through this situation, just like when the Bank provided support to businesses that were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2023.
“Bangkok Bank is ready to support customers through the challenges and difficulties caused by the current global economic volatility so that they can seek appropriate opportunities for growth. This is aimed to complement the government’s assistance measures, such as easing the burden of fuel and electricity costs, as well as the Bank of Thailand’s monetary policy, which has been effective in bringing down inflation and helping to make the business environment more stable so that Thai companies can thrive and continue to grow sustainably despite these challenges and obstacles,” said Mr. Chartsiri.
