Right approach needed for China, Thailand to develop greater B&R-EEC cooperation

Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Development Plan, the country’s largest-ever infrastructure and industrial scheme, could be well aligned with China’s Belt and Road (B&R) initiative, if the two countries can work together to address some of the challenges facing the alignment of the projects.

Thailand’s EEC will involve the construction of a lot of infrastructure, such as roads, railways, sea ports, airports, factories and industrial parks. In these areas, Chinese enterprises have a lot of experience, as well as plentiful capital, high-end equipment, and knowledge of international cooperation. Companies from China and Thailand can cooperate to boost Thailand’s EEC program.

But as with any plans for bilateral economic cooperation, there will be some challenges in connecting China’s B&R initiative and Thailand’s EEC Development Plan, and some will be hard to overcome.

First, Thailand’s EEC involves hundreds of big projects, and it will face an uncertain future if local land use issues are not quickly resolved. Second, the shortage of skilled labor in both China and Thailand will be a long-term problem.

Both countries are burdened with the aging population issue, which has become very serious in recent years. The shortage of high-end professionals in the science and technology fields in Thailand could be a bottleneck for the two countries’ cooperation.

Third, the ups and downs in the railway cooperation between China and Thailand in recent years could cast a shadow on future cooperation on big projects, especially in the infrastructure field. Fourth, the uncertainty surrounding Thailand’s political situation could also influence the links between China’s B&R initiative and Thailand’s EEC Development Plan.

There are some ways to deal with the challenges. First, both China and Thailand could optimize the introduction of their development plans to each other. Second, the two countries could promote bilateral people-to-people connections, and make sure that the bilateral cooperation will benefit ordinary people. Third, China and Thailand should make joint efforts to train qualified people to meet the needs of the bilateral cooperation.

The author is an associate professor at the Institute of South and Southeast Asian and Oceanian Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn