Thailand to woo more Japanese investment projects

BANGKOK, January 16 (TNA) - Thailand plans to draw more investment projects from Japan, including those related to the development of the new Dewei deep seaport in neighbouring Myanmar and related to a new industrial estate in Chacherngsao Province in the Thai East. Damrong Kraikruan, Director-General of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of East Asian Affairs, told journalists that the Thai government is seeking the increased Japanese investment projects during a two-day official visit to Thailand by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, scheduled for January 17-18, along with talks to further strengthen bilateral relations between Bangkok and Tokyo. Damrong said Japan is believed to be interested in joining the Dewei deep seaport development project and related plans, acknowledging that the tripartite cooperation between Myanmar, Japan and Thailand, if secured, should result in an early completion of the project and relevant schemes. Meanwhile, the Thai government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives' Royal Irrigation Department, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have agreed on a new joint investment plan for the development a flood prevention system to protect industrial estates in Thailand's central Ayutthaya Province, covering the construction of two sluices, following a lesson learnt from a flooding crisis in the Kingdom in late 2011, during which a number of factories in Ayutthaya, mostly Japanese ones, were hit and damaged by massive floods. (TNA)