Thailand: US$45b development plan will go ahead

BANGKOK: A 1.5 trillion baht (US$45 billion/RM190 billion) plan to redevelop Thailand’s industrial east will go ahead regardless of whoever takes power after elections, the military government told hundreds of Japanese investors yesterday.

The ruling junta, faced with weak exports and sluggish domestic demand, has focused on promoting investment to help revive growth in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, which lags regional peers.

The military government hopes the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) development project will lift growth to about 5% a year by 2020, from the latest government estimate of 3.5 for 2017.

“Regardless of which government is in office, or when the election will be held, the EEC plan will continue, with certainty,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told a gathering of 570 investors flown in from Japan.

“It is law, an act embedded within the 20-year national strategy, and supported by the national development plans.” – Reuters