The Thailand Film Office is looking forward to Thailand’s first international production incentive program

Director of the Thailand Film Office, Ubolwan Sucharitakul welcomed the news.

„2016 is turning out to be an excellent year for Thailand’s international film production services industry. We have seen a record number of international productions choose Thailand as a shooting location, and have demonstrated once again that Thailand can accommodate both high-budget and low-budget films efficiently and economically.

Productions from the USA have benefited from a strong US Dollar, which has reduced the costs of shooting in Thailand.

The film industry in China continues to grow, and we have seen a number of Chinese films come to Thailand in the past year. We expect this to increase.

The approval of the cabinet for an incentive program gives us confidence that Thailand’s production services industry can expand further, and look forward to even greater success.

We have always been proud that we have been able to maintain a thriving production services industry in Thailand, even when many other countries were offering substantial incentives.

Productions have chosen Thailand because the fundamental skills, infrastructure and value that Thailand can offer have outweighed the benefits of incentives that other countries have been able to offer.

However, we also recognise that in the investment structure of international productions, incentives can be a crucial element in a film’s finances. By not offering a competitive incentive, Thailand has lost productions to other countries.

Many studies have shown that the economic benefits to countries of hosting a film production outweigh the costs of offering incentives.

At the Thailand Film Office, we are delighted that the cabinet has approved an incentive program.

Incentives become part of the financial structure of a film, and are often used to secure loans. Therefore, it is vital that an incentive program is clear, transparent, and trusted by financial institutions. For this reason, the structure and detail of the incentive is extremely important, and is being drafted in consultation with production experts and members of the local industry. We hope to announce the final formula, percentages, caps and criteria within the next few months.”