Taming Thailand's wild frontier

[webfact]

Taming Thailand's Wild Frontier
by William Mellor

Prayuth Chan-Ocha, the general who runs Thailand, wants to turn once unruly border regions into zones of economic prosperity

BANGKOK: -- For much of the past century, the Thai border town of Mae Sot stood on one of Asia’s wilder frontiers.

On the opposite bank of the swirling, mud-brown Moei River in neighboring Myanmar, Karen insurgents waged a seemingly endless independence war. Smugglers trafficked guns, opium, timber, and gemstones. Then there was the two-way human cargo during the past three decades: 120,000 battle-scarred refugees seeking sanctuary in Thailand, battle-hardened mercenaries heading in the opposite direction.

In this unlikely outpost—and others like it along Thailand’s 5,673 kilometers (3,523 miles) of borders—Prayuth Chan-Ocha, the general who runs Bangkok’s ruling military junta, is making a big bet: that he can turn former war zones into some of Southeast Asia’s most prosperous marketplaces.

Full story: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-08/thailand-s-ruling-general-bets-83-billion-on-taming-borderlands

-- Bloomberg Business 2015-11-09

[trogers]

Even the archangel Michael would find the task daunting...

[ezzra]

Talks and dreams are cheap, and for a country who borrows billions of $ from other nation to fix it's own

immediate infrastructures issues, plans like what the PM is envisioning are fantastic, but way to early and

completely unnecessary for the moment.... let's us not forget that he has to fork out huge sums for the

very necessary submarines Thailand want to buy....

[abhaya]

I've been to Mae Sot a bunch, never knew it was so exciting.

[Krataiboy]

Now we know why Big Chief Five Rivers is seeking to reduce public oversight of mega development schemes which offer mouth-watering incentives to businesses looking for cheap land, labour and light regulation. Fine for the wealthy bankers and corporate CEOs, but what about the effects on the local population as the corporate juggernauts roll in?

Today's Bloomberg report on the development of Mae Sot has a revealing quote from a physician with a clinic in the once-sleepy border town. "With land becoming more expensive," she says, "the poor get poorer." Same old story.

[mogoso]

I've been to Mae Sot a bunch, never knew it was so exciting.

The most exciting thing going from Mae Sot into Myanmar is the multicolored apartment building. Next biggest attraction is the Crocodile Temple. it's all downhill from there.

Edited November 9, 2015 by mogoso

[diehard60]

I thought the only wild frontier Thailand had was Pataya and Phuket.