Thread: Thailand : Infrastructure

Originally Posted by peaches

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

She said Thailand, as an Asean hub, plays an important role in boosting connectivity and that the government plans to invest $90 billion in infrastructure projects such as the Thai-Lao high-speed train scheme and flood prevention and management projects.

Track work on the high-speed train is well underway.

weres this at like ???

i thought they were doing it in udon to kk and other way . not to sure now think they just renewing the track as high speed usually has a wider gauge

Thai Cabinet OKs borrowing $68B for megaprojects - Businessweek

AP News

Thai Cabinet OKs borrowing $68B for megaprojects

By By Thanyarat Doksone on March 20, 2013

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's Cabinet has approved a plan to borrow $67.6 billion to build high-speed train lines, ports and other infrastructure over the next seven years.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said the bill approved by Cabinet ministers Tuesday will allow the government to borrow the funds in Thailand and overseas without going through the annual government budget process. She said this will ensure the infrastructure plans aren't delayed and will give investors confidence in the projects.

"Funding the projects through the regular annual budget can be problematic because the budget is subjected to year-by-year approval. If there's a change of the government or in politics, the schemes could be discontinued," Yingluck told reporters. "By issuing of the borrowing bill, private investors can plan their investment to develop infrastructure in the provinces more confidently."

The financing plan needs the approval of parliament, which is controlled by Yingluck's party.

The projects include four high-speed rail lines that will connect Bangkok with Chiang Mai in the north, the Laotian border, Thailand's industrialized eastern seaboard and Malaysia. The trains will travel at 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour.

Plans also call for the construction of approximately 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) of dual-track rail lines that the government said could triple the number of rail services per day from the current 90. It is part of a push to switch hauling of goods from roads to rail to lower fuel consumption, logistics costs and delivery times.

According to the Transport Ministry, 86 percent of goods are transported by road in Thailand, which is Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.

The government also plans to add 13 lines to the mass transit train network in the country's capital and surrounding provinces to catch up with urban sprawl. The expansion will add 410 kilometers (255 miles) to rail routes across Bangkok and its outskirts.

Four more ports will be built on banks of Bangkok's main river and on the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea coasts.

The government said the projects will boost Thailand's economic growth rate by 1 percentage point a year and create more than 500,000 jobs.

The plan's critics said it reduced transparency by bypassing the budget process and raised public debt to unacceptably high levels.

Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong said Tuesday the mega projects will not drive the public debt higher than 50 percent of Thailand's gross domestic product. He said the infrastructure debt will be paid off within the next 50 years.

Infrastructure loan will take 50 years to repay | Bangkok Post: news

50 years to pay off loans, Kittiratt says

B2 trillion infrastructure bill secures cabinet nod

• Published: 20 Mar 2013 at 00.00
• Newspaper section: News

The Finance Ministry has conceded for the first time it will take the government 50 years to repay the 2 trillion baht in borrowing aimed at overhauling the country's infrastructure that the cabinet approved yesterday.


Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong and chief Democrat Party critic Korn Chatikavanij in a rare, light moment as political battle lines form over the huge loan proposal. (Photo by Patipat Janthong)

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said on Tuesday that the loans, which will be sought from domestic and international financial sources, will put Thailand's public debt at less than 50% of gross domestic product (GDP), a level that will not harm fiscal discipline. Repayment is planned over 50 years.

"We're quite sure that all of the debts will be repaid before 50 years because the projects can boost the economy and the country's competitiveness in the long run," Mr Kittiratt said.

"The infrastructure and assets funded by the loans, however, will exist for the country for some 100 years," he said.

According to the repayment plan, only interest will be repaid during the first 10 years.

The principal repayment will start from the 11th year with 1% or 20 billion baht of the principal to be repaid between the 11th and 19th years, 2% between the 20th and 30th years, 3% between 31st and 40th years and 4% between the 41st and 50th years.

The projects funded by the loans will come under tough scrutiny based on the benchmark prices set by the Finance Ministry and procurement regulations of the Prime Minister's Office to ensure transparency, Mr Kittiratt said.

The finance minister insisted the government needs to borrow because the annual budget is not sufficient to fund the megaprojects while Thailand has lacked massive investments in infrastructure for many years.
The investment will boost GDP by 1% a year on top of estimated annual economic growth of around 5-6%, and create 500,000 jobs, he said.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra confirmed that strict regulations and follow-up committees will ensure transparency in the 2-trillion-baht spending. She also said the spending would create national assets including high-speed trains and roads.

Transport Minister Chadchat Sittipunt said all the projects are based on the government's three strategies _ shifting Thailand's logistics from road to rail systems, linking the centre of each region to neighbouring countries, and building infrastructure to serve main economic areas in the provinces.

PM's Office Minister Varathep Rattanakorn said the government will submit the bill to parliament today for deliberation next week.

Opposition and Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva reiterated his opposition to the bill, saying the legislation will put a heavy debt burden on the country.

The ruling Pheu Thai Party had promised not to borrow during its election campaign but it was doing just the opposite now, he said.

Although the government plans to borrow mainly from local sources, Mr Abhisit still envisaged possible negative impacts from the government's dependence on domestic funds.

"Local borrowing means competition for loans with other parties which also need local loans. If there is high demand for loans and limited money to lend, interest rates will rise," Mr Abhisit said.

Mr Kittiratt dismissed Mr Abhisit's concern saying that the local money market has more than 2 trillion baht in liquidity while the government's investments each year will come to only 300 billion baht.

Chairman of the Board of Trade of Thailand Pongsak Assakul backed the 2-trillion-baht borrowing programme. He said the infrastructure projects will cut logistic costs and enhance the competitiveness of Thai business operators.

Mr Pongsak said the borrowing for the investment will allow Thailand to develop and it will not cause public debt to exceed 50% of the GDP, so should not pose a problem.

In another development, the cabinet yesterday endorsed the terms of reference for water management and flood prevention projects worth 340 billion baht. Six groups of qualified contenders are required to tender their technical proposals and bids by May 3.

The projects include the construction of reservoirs, flood prevention structures, water retention facilities, improvement of waterways and floodways and the creation of an integrated water information and forecasting centre.

Other projects are the construction of the controversial Kaeng Sue Ten dam in Phrae and two floodways along both sides of the Chao Phraya River.


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One firm to run all four planned high speed trains | Bangkok Post: news

One high-speed bidder to rule them all

• Published: 20 Mar 2013 at 17.51
• Online news: Local News

The government will select just one firm from all bidders to run four high-speed train lines, probably by the third quarter of the year, Transport Minister Chadchat Sittipunt said on Wednesday.

The minister said bids will cover trains and their signal systems. Bidding on civil work will follow, he added.

Train manufacturers from China, Japan, Spain, South Korea and France have so far shown interest in building and running high-speed trains. There are high-speed trains in all five countries.

Mr Chadchat said the government will select only one winner to operate the four lines. The government "does not want to have four different systems of the high-speed train on four routes because that could mean high maintenance costs," he said. "So only one firm will be selected."

The first four lines to be put to bids will run from Bangkok to Pattaya, Phitsanulok, Nakhon Ratchasima and Hua Hin.

Once it is running, the eastern train to Pattaya will be extended to Rayong and probably Chanthaburi and Trat. Long range plans call for other extensions as well. The northern train will be further built from Phitsanulok to Chiang Mai; Nong Khai is already planned to be the eventual terminus of the Northeast route from Nakhon Ratchasima, and the line to Hua Hin will go further south to Padang Besar in Songkhla province, at the Malaysia border.

The government expects the country's first high-speed train between Bangkok and Pattaya to be running by 2018. The lines to Phitsanulok, Nakhon Ratchasima and Hua Hin are scheduled to be completed in 2019.

High-speed train plans are central to the government's two-trillion baht scheme for megaprojects to improve infrastructure.

Shame they are not prepared to give up their customary skim of 25%, if they did the debit could be paid back in less than 35 years. But then I guess there are limits to thai nationalism.

Originally Posted by Necron99

Originally Posted by Mid

just one small question ,

where is the money ?

They are going to pay everyone off with 3 year old rice.

Nice one

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

"We're quite sure that all of the debts will be repaid before 50 years because the projects can boost the economy and the country's competitiveness in the long run," Mr Kittiratt said.

debt will be a good thing, and this is a good time to do it

BUT their infrastructure project is going to be a major fuel of inflation, so if you think Thailand was expensive now, it will be much more later

Thai parliament passes $64bn infrastructure borrowing bill
Parvez Jabri
Saturday, 21 September 2013



BANGKOK: Thailand's parliament has approved a bill to borrow 2 trillion baht, or $64 billion, to finance seven-year infrastructure projects aimed at sustaining economic growth and boosting investment at a time of weak exports.

The government has said the funding for the projects, including high-speed railways and mass-transit systems - proposed by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and approved late on Friday - will be completed by 2020, with repayments spread over 50 years.

"This is necessary for the country's development," Finance Minister Kittirat Na Ranong said in a weekly radio address on Saturday. The borrowing bill will still need to go to the Senate for final approval.

The funding will not come from the central government budget but will be mainly from the domestic market, where excess liquidity is high, at more than 3 trillion baht ($96.5 billion), Kittirat said, adding that some of the borrowing would be from overseas.

The Finance Ministry said this month the government planned to issue dollar bonds worth $1 billion to $1.5 billion in 2014, to help finance the infrastructure programme and a water management scheme.

The government also has plans for a flood management project worth 350 billion baht ($11 billion) this year, aimed at preventing a repeat of devastating flooding in late 2011 that cut economic growth to 0.1 percent that year.

Despite the huge borrowing plans, Kittirat has said public debt would not exceed half of gross domestic product (GDP). It stood at 44.1 percent by July, below a ceiling of 60 percent.

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