Dawei industrial park construction kicks off



BANGKOK: -- The Thai private sector is starting the first phase of the 20 billion baht worth Dawei Industrial Estate Project in Myanmar with target to complete construction in two years.

Somchet Thinaphong, managing director of Dawei Development Co Ltd, a joint venture owned by Ital Thai Development, Thailand’s largest infrastructure construction company, said he expected construction of Dawei industrial park o be completed within two years.

The first phase of the indusial estate project will cover an area of 27 square kilometers or 17,000 rais (1 acre=2.5 rais) with total investment value of 20 billion baht or some one million bath of infrastructure investment per rai, he said.

Initially, the industrial estate will house factories that use raw materials in Myanmar to produce goods for domestic sales or for export to neighboring countries.

Somchet said the first phase of the Dawei Industrial Estate Project will involve infrastructure development, covering constructions of small sea port, dam, roads linking the industrial estate to surrounding cities.

This includes a 130 kilometers road connecting Myanmar and Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province, which is expected to cost between 3.5 billion and 13 billion baht, he said.

Japan is willing to offer soft loan for the construction of the road, which once completed, will become a key land route connecting Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia, he said.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/dawei-industrial-park-construction-kicks-off

-- Thai PBS 2015-03-03

Wonder how many pigs heads will end up at the temples in case they ever get their loan back...

13 billion baht. Or 50 rice schemes.... amazing Thailand

13 billion baht. Or 50 rice schemes.... amazing Thailand

I believe you'll find that the appalling/abandoned rice-scheme cost several hundred billion baht, so this Dawei investment is peanuts, by comparison.

"Japan is willing to offer soft loan for the construction of the road"

Many nations have been anxious to invest in Thailand's infrastructure EXCEPT for one - Thailand. The Thai government can give itself soft loans. ie., at treasury bond rates, and use the return on those investments to help paydown the debt, add to the nation's GDP growth. Instead the Junta would rather pay greater debt service to other nations and help increase those nations' GDP growth.

Whatever happened to the plan to construct an 8-lane expressway from Bangkok (Bang Yai) via Nakorn Pathom and Kanchanaburi and then Phu Nam Ron to Dawei? That has been talked about for ages but nothing has happened so far. The traffic between Bangkok and Kanchanaburi is a nightmare, although it thins out to a trickle once you head towards the Burmese border at Phu Nam Ron.

Anyway, a good road would help matters as the current 5-hour 140km trek through a track cut through the Burmese jungle between the Thai border and Dawei doesn't exactly resonate with a "major industrial zone and seaport". Infrastructure has a long way to go in connecting the area to Thailand.