However, three quarters of the
applications to BOI for receiving privileges were in export-oriented industries with export
ratios ranging from 80 per cent to 100 per cent. Taiwanese investments concentrated on
labour-intensive, light manufacturing and some agro-industries for export; sports goods, toys,
shoes, bags, plastics, frozen shrimp, etc. It is important to realize that industrial relocation
from Japan and the East Asian NIEs to Thailand was undertaken for at least two main
reasons. The first was concerned with the strong Yen, while the second partly related to the
changes in comparative advantages in those countries. There was a clear trend showing that
Asian NIEs began to lose their comparative advantage in domestic production with labour
intensive manufactured products, such as textiles and clothing industries, to other countries
having low wage labour and abundant natural resources in what are classified as sun-set
industries.