Thai PM to visit Japan Feb 9

BANGKOK, February 2 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha will visit Japan on February 9 to discuss an electric rail project linking Thailand with neighboring Myanmar and Cambodia. Thai Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula told the 23rd Japan-Thailand Joint Trade and Economic Committee Meeting, held in Bangkok on Monday and attended by about 60 leading Japanese business operators and 100 Thai counterparts, of the prime minister's scheduled trip to Japan. According to the deputy prime minister, the electric tracks will be standard-gauge, 1.435 meters wide, but an investment plan has not yet been concluded. The deputy prime minister noted that Thailand and Myanmar agreed at a meeting of Thai and Myanmar officials and an advisor to the Japanese prime minister on January 30 to invite the Japanese government to be the third partner to develop the Dawei Industrial Estate in Myanmar, including a deep-sea port, with Tokyo expected to accept the invitation. On the occasion, the deputy prime minister said Japan has helped Thailand develop local industries for over 50 years and the Thai industries have grown well, especially the automobile one. Supant Mongkolsuthee, Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), told reporters, meanwhile, that Japan remained as the top investor in Thailand last year, proposing 672 projects, worth 293.33 billion baht, to seek promotional privileges from the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) and the investment accounted for 54 per cent of all foreign investment in Thailand. (TNA)