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Thailand to develop three eastern provinces to upgrade industries

Xinhua, February 16, 2017 Adjust font size:

Thai government said during a seminar Wednesday that the country is going to develop a economic corridor covering three eastern provinces to upgrade its industries and ask investors to invest both in its infrastructure projects and targeted industries.

The Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), covering 13,285 square km, or provinces of Chachoengsao, Chonburi and Rayong, is put forward earlier by Thai government to attract investment to selected industries such as the next-generation automotive, intelligent electronics, biotechnology, biofuels, aviation and etc.

To persuade both Thai and international investors that this EEC is attractive and promising, Thai Minister of Industry Uttama Savanayana, who is in charge of the project, said its infrastructure will be dramatically improved.

Uttama said during the seminar called "Opportunity Thailand" their target is that some 43 billion U.S. dollars from Thai government and private sectors can be used to enlarge an airport and ports, to build high-speed train, double-track rail lines and motorway and to construct hospitals and new buildings.

According to their plan, the current small airport of U-Tapao will be evolved to an international airport that can host over 30 million business travelers and tourists yearly, and also to support aviation industry such as the industry of maintenance, repair and overhaul(MRO).

And a high-speed train with a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour will be build to link the U-Tapao airport with Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport and Don Muang Airport to support Thailand's aim of becoming the hub of air traffic in Asia.

Accord to him, many of these infrastructure projects will be Public-Private-Parntership (PPP) projects.

Uttama said EEC one of the ways that the government is releasing its "Thailand 4.0" into reality.

According to the government, Thailand 4.0 is an economic model that says the country's economy has to be transformed into one driven by innovation and one that has a stronger and more balanced foundation to address problems of the country, including middle-income trap, growing income inequality and imbalanced development.

The government also amended the Investment Promotion Act to allow the country to offer better incentives to investor who invest in targeted core technology groups, such as biotechnology, nano-technology, advanced materials technology and digital technology, said Hirunya Suchinai, secretary general of Thailand's Board of Investment.

"We have many incentives right now, such as the period of corporate income tax exemption is extended to 13 years from 8 years for any invest in these targeted industries." Endit