First Phase of Southern Land Bridge to Begin by 2030

[snoop1130]

 

Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit stated on Monday, July 1, that the first part of the ambitious Southern Land Bridge project, costing 1 trillion baht, will begin operations by 2030’s end. The project aims to connect the Gulf of Thailand with the Andaman Sea. Plans for this project are currently being revised based on feedback from potential investors and locals, with the process likely to finish by this year's third quarter.

 

Design plans for the ports involved in the project should be completed by the year's end. They intend to finalise designs for railway tracks and inter-city motorway by 2024. The government aims to choose a contractor by the third quarter of 2025 and sign the contract in early 2026.

 

 

The construction will happen in three phases, starting from 2026 and finishing in 2030. The next phases will happen from 2031 to 2034 and then from 2035 to 2036. The project introduces the development of a port in the Ranong province, facing the Andaman Sea, and another in Chumphon which faces the Gulf of Thailand. They will also invest an additional 358.52 billion baht into inter-city motorway and railway infrastructure.

 

Suriya noted the project's positive financial outlook, with an expected internal rate of return of 8.62%. The breakeven point is expected 24 years after operations commence. He also stressed the considerable economic impact of the Land Bridge, forecasting it to create 280,000 jobs in the provinces of Chumphon and Ranong and significantly increase the country's GDP.

 

File photo for reference only

 

-- 2024-07-02

 

Get our Daily Newsletter - Click HERE to subscribe

[Henk Langeweg]

Why do they call it a landbridge and not just canal?

[LivinLOS]

Just now, Henk Langeweg said:

Why do they call it a landbridge and not just canal?

Because a landbridge ships dont sail through it.. It is offloading, overlanding, and reloading.. 

[Kerryd]

I have zero doubt that behind the scenes China's "Export Development Bank" will step in to offer cheap loans on favourable terms in exchange for a "controlling interest" in the project as a part of their "belt and road" strategy.

In other words, they'll lend Thailand the money and "own" the bridge until the loan is paid off. Fully expecting that it will never be paid off - or - they sign an "agreement" with Thailand to allow Chinese ships to dock in Thai ports and Chinese military aircraft to fly in/out of Thai airbases.

(Called "dual use agreements").

And that way China benefits from the cheaper cost of transporting goods from China to the Middle East/Europe, plus the return on investment from the "loan" and - importantly - the ability to base Chinese ships and aircraft far from China, in strategic locations.

And just so you know. They've made similar loans and "agreements" with countries like Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Djibouti on the coast of Africa. (And are working to do the same in Afghanistan and other places  in the South Pacific.)

A few years ago it was big news when China arranged to "lease" nearly 20% of Cambodia's entire shoreline. They then built a "resort" destination (with casinos of course).
And ! They built an entire airport as well. But it was noted by Intelligence analysts that the runways were far longer than needed by even the largest commerical cargo or passenger planes (including the A380).

But - they were the perfect length for fully loaded Chinese bombers to land/take off from.

At the same time, they signed a "dual use agreement" with Hun Sen to allow Chinese warships to dock in the Ream Naval base - a mere hour's drive south of that new airport. As a part of the agreement, Cambodia agreed to demolish 2 new (under 5 years old) "Command and Control" buildings the Americans had built for Cambodia as well as dredging the port and modifying the piers to handle the larger Chinese ships.

(Note that allowing Chinese ships to dock in Cambodian ports is apparently a violation of the Cambodian constitution. But when you're a 3rd world dictator that has no problem arresting and imprisoning anyone who opposes you - who cares !)

As a part of the deal, China gifted Cambodia with 300 new military trucks. Hun Sen turned around and told Cambodia that "he" was donating those trucks to the military and police - as though "he" was the one who bought them.

And gee, I wonder who has their eyes set on doing basically the exact same thing in Thailand ? There is no way China wants a "western friendly" country in the middle of their "back yard" so they are slowly working to spread their influence (and money) in Thailand to change it from an independent "western-allied" nation to a puppet state that is "Chinese-friendly".

A lot of happenings in Thailand can be linked to that.
The "highspeed train" from China to Thailand for example.
The attempted purchase of Chinese submarines.
The plans to legalize Casinos (Chinese tourists love casinos).
Condo developments. (And the recent proposal to allow more "foreign ownership" of condo buildings - you really don't think the Thai gov't, even for a fraction of a second, took "you" into consideration when they made that proposal, do you ? No, it's about bowing down to a different master.)
Changes in Visas/Exemption periods. (Again, you need to understand that the gov't really doesn't give a hoot about some old, gray, cheap charlie expats from Western countries. This is all about making Thailand more "friendly" to the Chinese.)

Give it another 20 years maybe and Thailand will basically be like Cambodia. With a similar puppet gov't and economy, both firmly under China's control.

[ugghuggh]

Probably but even the Chinese will see the poor return on the land bridge concept and rather just load/offload in yangoon and use the railway to China 

Edited July 2 by ugghuggh

[hotchilli]

12 hours ago, Henk Langeweg said:

Why do they call it a landbridge and not just canal?

Because it's not a canal?

[Presnock]

13 hours ago, Kerryd said:

I have zero doubt that behind the scenes China's "Export Development Bank" will step in to offer cheap loans on favourable terms in exchange for a "controlling interest" in the project as a part of their "belt and road" strategy.

In other words, they'll lend Thailand the money and "own" the bridge until the loan is paid off. Fully expecting that it will never be paid off - or - they sign an "agreement" with Thailand to allow Chinese ships to dock in Thai ports and Chinese military aircraft to fly in/out of Thai airbases.

(Called "dual use agreements").

And that way China benefits from the cheaper cost of transporting goods from China to the Middle East/Europe, plus the return on investment from the "loan" and - importantly - the ability to base Chinese ships and aircraft far from China, in strategic locations.

And just so you know. They've made similar loans and "agreements" with countries like Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Djibouti on the coast of Africa. (And are working to do the same in Afghanistan and other places  in the South Pacific.)

A few years ago it was big news when China arranged to "lease" nearly 20% of Cambodia's entire shoreline. They then built a "resort" destination (with casinos of course).
And ! They built an entire airport as well. But it was noted by Intelligence analysts that the runways were far longer than needed by even the largest commerical cargo or passenger planes (including the A380).

But - they were the perfect length for fully loaded Chinese bombers to land/take off from.

At the same time, they signed a "dual use agreement" with Hun Sen to allow Chinese warships to dock in the Ream Naval base - a mere hour's drive south of that new airport. As a part of the agreement, Cambodia agreed to demolish 2 new (under 5 years old) "Command and Control" buildings the Americans had built for Cambodia as well as dredging the port and modifying the piers to handle the larger Chinese ships.

(Note that allowing Chinese ships to dock in Cambodian ports is apparently a violation of the Cambodian constitution. But when you're a 3rd world dictator that has no problem arresting and imprisoning anyone who opposes you - who cares !)

As a part of the deal, China gifted Cambodia with 300 new military trucks. Hun Sen turned around and told Cambodia that "he" was donating those trucks to the military and police - as though "he" was the one who bought them.

And gee, I wonder who has their eyes set on doing basically the exact same thing in Thailand ? There is no way China wants a "western friendly" country in the middle of their "back yard" so they are slowly working to spread their influence (and money) in Thailand to change it from an independent "western-allied" nation to a puppet state that is "Chinese-friendly".

A lot of happenings in Thailand can be linked to that.
The "highspeed train" from China to Thailand for example.
The attempted purchase of Chinese submarines.
The plans to legalize Casinos (Chinese tourists love casinos).
Condo developments. (And the recent proposal to allow more "foreign ownership" of condo buildings - you really don't think the Thai gov't, even for a fraction of a second, took "you" into consideration when they made that proposal, do you ? No, it's about bowing down to a different master.)
Changes in Visas/Exemption periods. (Again, you need to understand that the gov't really doesn't give a hoot about some old, gray, cheap charlie expats from Western countries. This is all about making Thailand more "friendly" to the Chinese.)

Give it another 20 years maybe and Thailand will basically be like Cambodia. With a similar puppet gov't and economy, both firmly under China's control.

You forgot applying to join BRICS to complete the picture.

 

[spidermike007]

I wonder if Chinese money will be used. It seems the belt and road initiative had been a massive failure for them. Countries are defaulting left and right. Sri Lanka just stated they will not be able to repay the money loaned to them. Same applies to Italy and countless other nations. Just more hubris of power hungry, madman Xi. 

 

China is in financial meltdown mode. Their external debt is enormous. Domestic debt is off the charts. The real estate market has imploded, and China leads the world in ghost cities. And it is likely few are mourning their meltdown. 

 

The BRI also suffered from a lack of coordination. Beijing unleashed a funding bonanza but without a centralized function ensuring that the money was well used. Rapacious Chinese entities, both public and private, partnered with corrupt officials in borrower nations to advance their own narrow interests, leading to high-profile, low-quality projects that impressed voters and constituents in the short term but often were unneeded, poorly thought out, or defective.

 

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/02/27/tightening-the-belt-or-end-of-the-road-chinas-bri-at-10/

 

Moving forward, it is important that we apply the same level of cynicism towards other initiatives that come out of Beijing. In recent years, Xi Jinping has announced several new concepts: the Global Security Initiative (GSI), the Global Development Initiative (GDI), and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI). Xi Jinping’s latest initiative, announced at the Belt and Road Forum, is the Global Artificial Intelligence Governance Initiative.

 

Like the BRI, these initiatives can be flexibly applied and are effectively empty. Moreover, they are also more about branding and narrative, than concrete strategy. The GSI is anti-NATO, and aimed at tackling the US alliance structure; the GDI is about equating China’s overseas development agenda with UN sustainability goals; and the GCI is about Beijing’s moral relativism and its opposition to the idea that certain values like liberal democracy are universal.

 

https://chinaobservers.eu/why-we-should-stop-talking-about-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative/

 

China has invested a total of $1 trillion US dollars in more than 100 countries. Its projects are building some of the world's largest infrastructure. Yet, despite this, China has failed to achieve its intended goals of spreading Chinese power and influence and bringing economic growth benefits to both China and the recipient countries. 

 

The result is expanding debt on a global scale. This, they conclude, has only served to increase distrust and opposition to China. 

 

https://japan-forward.com/chinas-grandiose-belt-and-road-initiative-has-flopped/

 

Edited July 3 by spidermike007

[Purdey]

I still think a canal would be better over the long term. Unloading, then loading again sounds cost ineffective. Overland has got to be more expensive.

[Peabody]

How many train cars would be necessary to move the containers of even 1 large bulk carrier vessel? And guessing it would take more than a day or 2 or 3 to unload/load a large carrier.