Political strife halts B900m investment

Lars Lang, a partner at Thai Estate Scandinavia Company, said he regretted that a year of preparations had been undone by the recent unrest.

"The global financial crisis has clearly been a great challenge for all of us over the past five to six months," the Danish entrepreneur said. "But the unstable political situation in Thailand right now makes it nearly impossible.

"This means a year's work in convincing investor groups that Thailand is the best place to invest in in Asia is probably wasted."

One of the investor groups has cancelled its plans to visit Thailand and is unwilling to channel any more resources into the country because of prevailing tensions, said Mr Lang, who is also a partner in Lang Consulting and Asia Prestige Group.

It would take another year before investors started to think about doing business in Thailand, he said.