New business registrations see surge

The Commerce Ministry is upbeat about new business registrations this year, driven by the government’s stimulus measures and the rebound in the tourism sector.
Auramon Supthaweethum, director-general of the Business Development Department, said new business registrations for the first eight months of 2024 rose by 0.42% to 61,819, with combined registered capital of 186 billion baht, down 60.3%, compared to the corresponding period last year.
The top three businesses with the highest number of registrations were general construction, real estate and restaurants.
“The number of new business registrations increased continuously, spreading across all sectors such as auto parts production and electric vehicles, hotel accommodation and tourism, soft-power businesses such as local liquor production, film production, healthcare businesses and e-commerce businesses,” Ms Auramon said.
The increase was attributed to the economic recovery, a larger number of tourism-related businesses resuming post-pandemic, the expansion of private consumption and exports, and the implementation of the government’s 10,000-baht handout, she said.
The department expects new business registrations this year to tally between 90,000 and 98,000, marking a 5-15% increase.
Over the past three years, the number of restaurants has continued to increase following the end of the pandemic.
In 2023, new business registrations rose by 32.9% to 4,017, with combined registered capital of 8.08 billion baht, up 22.6% compared to 2022.
In the first eight months of 2024, there were 2,847 new restaurant businesses with a combined registered capital of 5.83 billion baht.
There were 44,508 active legal entities with a combined registered capital of around 221 billion baht, consisting of 43,874 small-sized restaurants (98.5%), 521 medium-sized restaurants (1.17%) and 113 large-sized restaurants (0.25%), with the following forms of establishment: limited companies, limited partnerships, ordinary partnerships, and public limited companies, respectively.
The businesses were mostly concentrated in Bangkok (Wattana, Bang Rak and Klong Toey districts), the South (Phuket, Surat Thani and Krabi) and the East (Chonburi, Rayong and Trat).
Over the past three years, restaurant businesses have generated an average annual revenue of 63 billion baht.
In 2023, revenue rose by 25.4% to roughly 307 billion baht, with Bangkok accounting for the majority of the revenue.
The value of foreign investment in Thai restaurant businesses tallied 29 billion baht, led by the US (20.9%), Japan (10.8%), China (8%), India (7.46%) and France (5.53%).
The growth of the restaurant business in Thailand has been attributed to the adoption of new technologies such as online platforms which are easily accessible and have lower costs compared to physical establishments.
They also tend to be more responsive to evolving customer preferences and lifestyles.