The first industrial delegation from the Nordic region organised by the Thailand Board of Investment office in Stockholm, ended its official week-long programme in Thailand yesterday, Friday 15 May 2026. The visit successfully combined industrial visits, business matching sessions and networking events centered around SUBCON Thailand 2026.
The delegation brought together Nordic business representatives interested in manufacturing cooperation, sourcing opportunities and investment possibilities in Thailand and Southeast Asia.
The first full day of the programme featured a visit to AMATA City Chonburi Industrial Estate hosted by AMATA Corporation.
The Nordic visitors were welcomed by Claudia Nonthitipong-Bieri, Department Manager, Communication at AMATA Corporation PCL, together with her communications team, who accompanied the delegation throughout the extensive tour of the industrial estate.
Participants were introduced to the scale of industrial development in Thailand, infrastructure planning, utilities, logistics and the growing role of Thailand as a regional production hub.
The following day, Wednesday 13 May 2026, the delegation attended the official opening of SUBCON Thailand 2026 at BITEC Bangna, where numerous group photos and networking activities took place before the individual business meetings began.
Throughout the exhibition, one or more members of the Nordic delegation could regularly be found in the business matching area behind the BOI booth, holding meetings with Thai manufacturers and suppliers.
Thursday evening, 14 May 2026, after a long day of meetings at BITEC, Dr. Sawitree Suwannasang, Director of the BOI Stockholm Office, hosted the delegation for dinner at a riverside restaurant opposite Wat Arun on the Chao Phraya River. In this dinner also Nordic consultant Mats Gerlam participated, having arrived only the same morning.
As half empty tourist boats moved slowly up and down the river in the sunset, delegates observed how Thailand’s traditional low season for tourism appears to have arrived earlier than usual this year amid rising airline ticket prices linked to tensions surrounding the Iran war.
Friday morning, the delegation again gathered for the seminar “Doing Business in Thailand,” organised by the BOI Paris office, with the Stockholm delegation also invited to participate.
After the seminar, a smaller networking session took place with participation from Directors of the Thai-Swedish Chamber of Commerce as well as the Thai-Finnish Chamber of Commerce.
A larger afternoon networking arrangement with representatives from also the Danish and the Norwegian chambers of commerce was ultimately cancelled because of limited interest from the chamber side. Instead, the delagates found the spare time useful to explore the simultaneous exhibitions, InterMach 2026, Plastics & Rubber Thailand, Future Mobility Thailand and Tyrexpo Asia Bangkok, which all took place at BITEC Expo.
Saturday, the group is scheduled to visit Temple of the Emerald Buddha and spend a few final hours shopping in Bangkok on their own before departing Thailand late on a TThai Airways International flight.
The mission marks the first industrial delegation of its kind organised by the BOI office in Stockholm and is already being viewed as a successful new initiative under the leadership of Dr. Sawitree Suwannasang, who took up her post as Director for the Nordic region less than a year ago in October 2025.
“I am very happy with my job. I also love the slow pace of life in Stockholm,” she says. But the pace of activity around the Stockholm office has clearly accelerated since her arrival.
Originally graduated in food science, Sawitree later completed a master degree in Food Engineering specialising in biotechnology before eventually earning a PhD in this field.
Before joining BOI, she worked for the Thai company behind the VitaMilk brand and later taught food science at a university in Phrae in northern Thailand.
“At that time, my dream was actually to have my own company,” she explains.
She developed a protein-based snack product called “Egg Bites,” produced for her under OEM arrangements in both Original and Spicy versions.
Eventually, in 2008, she joined BOI as a service officer specialising in the food industry sector.
Today, she explains to Nordic companies how BOI support can fundamentally change the conditions for foreign investors in Thailand.
“The three main benefits are that approved companies can have 100 percent foreign ownership, there is no longer a strict requirement to employ four Thai staff for every foreign employee, and investors can receive tax holidays of five years or sometimes even up to eight years,” she explains.
When Dr. Sawitree moved to Stockholm last year, her husband and their two children, a 12-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter, moved along with her.
While the delegation was in Thailand, her children were visiting grandparents in Nan Province, although her own programme proved too busy to allow time for a family visit.
After returning to Stockholm together with the delegation, she is already preparing the next phase of activities.
“After the summer, I will travel around the Nordic countries and visit trade fairs within different sectors. I believe it is a very good way to meet companies that are active and passionate about their business,” she says.
She is already planning for an even larger Nordic business delegation to attend SUBCON in Thailand again in May 2027.
“If someone thinks it sounds interesting, they should not wait but contact me right away,” she says
Among participants in this year’s delegation, Dr. Sawitree Suwannasang was widely recognised as a highly energetic and visible organiser who remained constantly engaged with the group throughout the programme.
Since taking over the Stockholm office less than a year ago, she has already launched new outreach activities including seminars on Thailand’s new long-term visa initiatives and now the office’s first Nordic industrial delegation to Thailand.
News in Thai language at www.EuroThaiLink.com
