Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Sunday (Sep 24) that the country expects to receive investment of at least US$5 billion from Tesla, Google and Microsoft.

“Tesla would be looking into an EV (electric vehicle) manufacturing facility, Microsoft and Google are looking at data centres,” he said, without detailing whether the US$5 billion was expected to be a combined investment or made individually by each company.

Tesla, Google and Microsoft did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Srettha was speaking to reporters in Bangkok after attending the UN General Assembly in New York where he also held talks with company executives earlier this week.

Fresh foreign investment would boost Thailand’s flagging economy, which is expected to grow by 2.8 per cent this year, less than previously projected, due to weaker exports.

Srettha spoke with Tesla CEO Elon Musk last week about the EV sector.

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Thailand, Asia’s fourth-largest car assembly hub, has been offering incentives to EV and battery makers, and tax cuts to local EV buyers, so as to remain a regional auto centre. Reuters