Thailand outlined ambitious plans and its immediate priorities for its Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) project at the Greater Mekong Investment Forum in Bangkok recently.

Plans for what was called “the most complete and special economic zone” are considered “pivotal to Thailand” and, it was hinted, the Greater Mekong Subregion.

The core of the plan is for new and upgraded infrastructure within the three provinces east of the capital Bangkok, Chachoengsao, Rayong and Chonburi, to create a broader and more value-adding industrialization of the region.

Some of this is already in place, as the project builds on 30 years of the Eastern Seaboard Development project. What is new is the plan to integrate these two projects more closely, add to them and support them with government incentives and free trade zones.

“The EEC is not built on nothing. It is built on something that has been there,” said Kanit Sangsubhan, secretary general of the Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand.

Already in place are ports such as Laem Chabang, also Map Ta Phut and Sattahip. Laem Chabang will be expanded via its third phase to become among the top 15 cargo ports in the world and a gateway to Indochina. Map Ta Phut, also via a third phase of development, will focus on fuels and liquids, with Sattahip looking to shipbuilding and next generation cars at its core.

U-Tapao International Airport will be upgraded with new cargo and passenger facilities and a runway extension. There will also be “free trade zones around the seaports and airports,” Sangsubhan told the forum. Also planned is a north-south rail link coming from China, via Laos, to meet an east-west line coming from Dawei in Myanmar. “That will be our anchor,” Sangsubhan added.

While the government does talk about the new industries it wishes to attract – including robotics, medicines, aviation and mechatronics – something based on the quality of life a place as congenial as Thailand offers has, unusually, cynics might say, identified priorities.

“We estimate during this five-year period we are going to build a lot of new motorways [and] dual track and high speed railways,” Sangsubhan said. What might delay this is heavy reliance on private sector funding. The government, said Sangsubhan, will provide only 20% of the financing. With a price tag estimated at US$43 billion for the first five years of works, all in, knock-backs look likely.

One of the first tests of this, U-Tapao, is likely to be soon, as the government presses on hard with five key projects, of which three are transportation infrastructure, within the next 10 months. The leading project is to make the chronically under-utilized facility – 90% so by Sangsubhan’s reckoning – the “Eastern Aerotropolis.”

That’s long term. This year the plan is to get the first phase of the MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) centre going, start construction of the second runway and grant concession for the new city airport. (In the future U-Tapao will have a 1.5 millionsquare-metre free trade zone.)

Linked to this is the need for speed in getting some high-value goods (but more usually people) into Bangkok, which means the need for a high-speed rail link between U-Tapao and Bangkok. The parallel Sangsubhan drew was the 45-minute link between Narita and Tokyo.

“We need this kind of speed. It will be bidding at the same time, at the end of this year or next,” he said of both the U-Tapao and high-speed projects. The former is expected to cost US$5.7 billion for the first five years, the latter at US$4.5 billion for the same time span. (By coincidence, Laem Chabang, on which work is also hoped to start this year, is also expected to cost US$4.5 billion. This, though, would more than double container accommodation to 18 million TEUs from the current 7 million TEUs, and triple car export accommodations to 3 million annually.)

For volume goods, the rail plans are ambitious with the existing single line being upgraded to double-track from Laem Chabang to Map Ta Phut seaport. New routes such as Laem Chabang-Pluak Daeng-Rayong are in the pipeline, and Map Ta Phut-Rayong-Chanthaburi-Trat being under study. For the first five years of work, the rail projects will bear a US$1.8 billion price tag.

The ultimate goal here is a noticeable shift in who carries cargo to Thailand’s seaports. “We need [the carriers] to change to railways. We need 30% shipped by the train,” said Sangsubhan. Currently, it’s an inefficient 9% carried by rail. Reaching 30% would be the start, possibly, of a modal shift for the transport of goods, but maybe also eventually for Thailand.

By Michael Mackey

Southeast Asia Correspondent | Bangkok