EVERYWHERE you look on Thailand’s Amata industrial estate in Rayong, you see signs in Chinese. It’s a similar story just along the coast in the tourist resort of Pattaya, where Mandarin is increasingly visible alongside English and Russian.

    As China’s economy slows, its investors are looking abroad for growth and Thailand, home to one of the world’s largest ethnic Chinese minorities and a gateway to Southeast Asia’s 600 million consumers, is a hot investment destination in everything from industry to condominiums.

    “Thailand is usually the first stop for Chinese tourists and investors,” said Xu Genluo, who runs the Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Zone, about 200 kilometers southeast of Bangkok. Dozens of new Chinese-owned solar, rubber and industrial manufacturing plants have opened in the zone since 2012.

    “Thailand’s investment environment, especially its investment promotion policies, are among the best worldwide,” he said, adding that labor costs were higher in China.

    Since a May 2014 coup, Thailand and China have drawn closer diplomatically and militarily as the ruling generals seek to counterbalance the country’s cooling ties with Washington.

    Chinese investors have found a warm welcome in an economy that has seen investment crimped by a decade of political turmoil, and where the junta has struggled to revive exports and domestic demand in the two years since seizing power.

    Investment pledges from China jumped fivefold in the first quarter from a year earlier to 5.7 billion baht (US$163 million), from just 1.1 billion baht, giving China the third largest investment slate during the period as Chinese firms raced to meet a tax break deadline and U.S. investors held back.

    That was still some way behind Japan, which pledged 15.6 billion baht. Japan and China jostle for influence in Southeast Asia and Japan has long been Thailand’s largest investor, with several large car plants accounting for much of the investment.

    But Chinese investment is growing strongly, in part due to China’s policy of encouraging manufacturers to shift production abroad to deal with industrial overcapacity at home.

    “What we’ve seen so far in Chinese investment into Thailand is small compared with what’s coming,” said Joe Horn-Phathanothai, chief executive of Strategy613, a strategic advisor focused on Chinese and Thai corporate investments.

    “Hand-in-hand with the slowdown in China we’ll see an increase in the number of deals the Chinese do abroad.”

    Last year, China was the fourth-biggest foreign investor in Thailand, behind Japan, the United States and Singapore.

    Tourist numbers have also jumped, helped by the huge success in China of the 2012 slapstick comedy “Lost in Thailand.” About 7.9 million Chinese visited the “Land of Smiles” last year, up 71 percent from 2014, when unrest in Bangkok that preceded the coup scared tourists away, and Thailand expects more this year.

    There has been no slowdown in the number of tourists due to the economic deceleration in China, helped by the growth of budget airlines, tour operators say.

    “Our products are relatively cheap. We have good food and culture and no political problems with their government, unlike Japan,” Ronnarong Chewinsiriamnuai, president of the Thai-Chinese Tourism Alliance Association.

    Thailand is expecting a record 33 million tourists in 2016, with China providing the bulk of the increase from the record set in 2015 of just below 30 million. (SD-Agencies)