Last Thursday the Thai government approved the country's first national semiconductor and advanced electronics strategy, and Narit Therdsteerasukdi, the BOI's Secretary General, said specialized talent is now as critical to site selection as infrastructure and incentives. A month ago, I wrote about Thailand's investment figures getting ahead of the people it takes to run the plants.
I agree with Narit, because when you're the one who needs to staff it, it matters just as much after the site is selected.
The workforce program takes place over four years
The Ministry of Higher Education is running a workforce program behind the strategy, which aims to develop 86,600 people by 2030. That's a big commitment, but it takes place over four years, and if you're a plant manager or a country MD who needs production lines running next year, the people graduating in 2029 aren't going to be working in your facility when the customer comes in for the first audit.
THAILAND'S SEMICONDUCTOR STRATEGY IN THREE NUMBERS
86,600
people by 2030
The workforce program behind the strategy: 84,900 high-skilled workers and about 1,700 senior researchers.
More than 5,000
positions
Infineon's plant in Samut Prakan, opened 1 October 2026.
More than 230,000
additional jobs
The strategy's target by 2050.
Source: Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), 24 September 2026.
THE PLANTS NEED PEOPLE BEFORE THE GRADUATES ARRIVE
-
24 Sep 2026
National semiconductor and advanced electronics strategy approved
-
1 Oct 2026
Infineon opens in Samut Prakan, more than 5,000 positions
-
Next year
New lines need people
-
2029
First graduates from the workforce program
-
2030
End of Phase 1, target of 86,600 people
Source: Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), 24 September 2026.
In a previous business I was managing, we transferred a data center product design from China to Thailand when there was no production here at all and ramped it from zero to more than $200M in two years. We started by rotating engineers from other projects, because we had a pool to draw from, and then we hired from the outside to fill the rest.
Enough people already on the floor
The first question for anyone running a plant here this year is whether you have enough people already on the floor to pull onto the new customer. We were regularly developing qualified technicians into supervisors; however, for many, their educational background would prevent them from moving into engineering, and line managers. For those roles, it's critical to develop partnerships with engineering universities and vocational technical schools, for both blue-collar and white-collar roles, which is what Infineon is doing with joint curricula alongside the factory it is opening in Samut Prakan in just two more days.
People rarely move alone
The pool in EMS is already tight, and for data centers it's almost non-existent. Infineon is planning to have more than 5,000 employees at full operation, and wherever the skills it needs match what's already available in the EMS sector, they will be trying to hire them from the plants around it, because there's nowhere else to get them for the time being. That game happens in most tightly pooled industries and EMS is no exception. People rarely move alone, either. The secondary challenge to that is that many of them are friends and/or relatives, so when one goes, the rest of the group tends to follow.
THE STRATEGY'S THREE PHASES
Phase 1
to 2030
Strengthen assembly and test, move into advanced packaging, lay the groundwork for wafer production.
Phase 2
to 2040
Bring in upstream investors for chip design and wafer production.
Phase 3
to 2050
A complete supply chain with Thai local champions.
Source: Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), 24 September 2026.