Private sector invited to invest in Thailand's mega projects

BANGKOK, August 4 (TNA) - The Ministry of Finance invites the private sector to invest in Thailand's new mega projects on national infrastructure development. Permanent Secretary for Finance Rungson Sriworasat told a seminar in Bangkok on Monday that his ministry will have laws passed and set up a 16-billion-baht infrastructure fund to effectively attract the private participation. Rungson said at the seminar on creating public understanding on the law governing private participation in government projects that, as the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has already approved a strategic plan to invest a total of about 2.4 trillion baht in national infrastructure development projects, his ministry will ask the NCPO to pass relevant laws to encourage the private sector to co-invest in them. Kulit Sombatsiri, Director-General of the State Enterprise Policy Office, acknowledged, meanwhile, that the relevant laws would be organic laws of the private investment participation law, which should be promulgated within this year to set criteria for the evaluation of state investment projects. According to the senior official, the Ministry of Finance plans to have the private sector to bear 20 per cent of investment in the new 2.4-trillion-baht infrastructure projects and the implementation of the projects can start when the organic laws are passed. Besides, the Ministry of Finance will support the establishment of an infrastructure development fund, which will help pay for the infrastructure development. The senior official revealed that the fund establishment would begin with the revival of the infrastructure development fund of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and then other state enterprises would be encouraged to raise funds for their infrastructure projects through the revived fund, citing the Expressway Authority of Thailand (EAT), Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT) and the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT) as examples of state enterprises having large-scaled infrastructure development projects, namely the expansion of the Laem Chabang Port in the Thai East. (TNA)