Construction of Thai-Chinese high-speed railway to begin in December

[Ricardo]

1 hour ago, Cadbury said:

Just the other day they announced they wouldn't accept the loan conditions of the Chinese.

 

The haggling has been going on for some time, for example last August :-

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30323682

 

The Chinese need the whole line to get built rapidly, or the Chinese & Laos sections are less profitable initially, the Thais are seemingly dragging their feet and looking for better terms on the loans.  A sensible negotiating tactic IMO.

 

Since much of the economic-benefit will accrue to China, one can make a case that they should pay for (and build) the whole thing, but the Thais don't like that  ...  one can speculate as to why.

 

Then there is the memory of the Hopewell project, Thailand isn't as dependable a partner as it seems to think, but equally they don't want to put up valuable land or ports and other assets, only to lose them to China if poor management or lower-than-forecast traffic-volumes mean that the line runs at an unsustainable-loss.

[Neeranam]

On 17/11/2017 at 7:30 AM, Happyman58 said:

Dont worry no Thais will be hurt building it Because none will be working there They be all from Laos Cambodia Burma No matter if they get hurt plenty more where they come from

There are thousands of Thais working on it.

They've been talking about this for nearly 20 years. Great the Chinese have some money these days.

[Srikcir]

3 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

the Thais are seemingly dragging their feet and looking for better terms on the loans.

In 2015 Thailand sought an interest rate of 2% per annum on the soft loans while China insisted on 2.5%, arguing that Thailand was now an upper-middle income country.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Sino-Thai-railway-project-can-wait-until-termsare-30274293.html

Thailand countered in August 2017 that China was demanding a higer interest rate from Thailand than it granted Indonesia for a similar project. But Thailand had a better Sovereign credit rating than Indonesia. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30323682

On or about August 30, 2017 Prayut signed two "ceremonial" contracts authorizing the Chinese government to oversee construction of the project after its consulting fees were more than doubled from 1.6 billion baht to 3.5 billion baht.

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2017/08/30/prayuth-sign-high-speed-railway-contracts-china-next-week/

The following month Prayut signed four agreements were signed which covers the first phase of design and development of a high-speed rail network.

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1000504-thailand-signs-four-agreements-with-china-on-development-of-high-speed-train-project/?utm_source=newsletter-20170906-1817&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

There is no further mention of disagreement with the loan interest rate. If there was, no agreements would have been executed to physically begin the project and license Chinese engineers. Obviously, no more "dragging" of Thailand's feet.

China's original proposal of 1.6 billion baht for consulting fees was never an issue in negotiations.

So it appears to me (not finding any update since September 2017) that the interest rate was held at Thailand's 2% but with a "sweetener" of an additional 1.9 billion baht paid to China for "consulting fees."

[Happyman58]

12 hours ago, Neeranam said:

There are thousands of Thais working on it.

They've been talking about this for nearly 20 years. Great the Chinese have some money these days.

Ok then . I do have a bit of trouble telling  the difference between Thais And Laos and Cambodians Guess they just look  the same . One easy way to tell the difference is to look for the Hammocks and you will find the Thais Sorry but after seeing what is going on in this city its hard to believe Thais like work. But that is just life i guess 

[Ricardo]

21 hours ago, Srikcir said:

Obviously, no more "dragging" of Thailand's feet.

 

Yet only the first phase, of the three comprising the project, is yet supposedly underway ?

 

And why the need to break one project into three sections anyway, except as a ploy to string it out ?

 

I look forward to the signing of contracts, and financing-arrangements being in place, for the second and third sections  ...  but until then I believe Thailand is still haggling with China over the whole thing.

 

But I look forward to the deals eventually being done, and the opening of the Chinese railway, hopefully within 15-25 years or so ?