Thai PM invites Japan to invest in GMS, EEC

TOKYO, October 9 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha has invited Japan to expand its investment into the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) and the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Project in the Thai East. The Thai premier, who is visiting Japan to attend the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo during October 8-10, voiced the invitation on Tuesday while delivering a speech at the Mekong-Japan Investment Forum, organized by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) as part of this year's Mekong-Japan Summit. The Thai leader proposed that Japan take a good opportunity currently when GMS is in a transitional period to keep pace with the borderless connectivity of the global development of more value-added industries and human resources to expand its investment to GMS and EEC in order to move towards the world's 4.0 era together. For EEC, Prime Minister Prayut acknowledged that the political and economic situation in Thailand is now more stable and stronger due to a careful planning towards the quality national growth in the future when no people in the country would be left behind amid the development of innovative 4.0 industries, along with the environmental protection, in order to well-connect with the global advanced economic system. "The Japanese business sector is invited to work together with Thailand to jointly develop 10 potential industries in the EEC's Innovation Park and Digital Park that are particularly targeted and promoted by the Thai government and are in line with the Japanese policy on connected industries", said the Thai leader. The Thai prime minister cited as examples that Japanese firms may invest in new infrastructure projects in EEC, under which some Chinese and Japanese firms have already expressed their interest in becoming stakeholders, namely a high speed train project linking three major Thai international airports for the first time, including the Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok, the Suvarnabhumi Airport on the outskirts of the capital and the U-Tapao Airport in the eastern Rayong Province. The Thai prime minister also pointed out that Japanese firms may also invest in projects, located in the Thai Kingdom, under the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC) and the Southern Economic Corridor (SEC) of the GMS, as well as innovative research and development projects and those on promoting the role of Japanese financial institutes, covering the participation in the ACMECS Fund among member countries of the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), comprising of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The Thai premier expressed his confidence that EEC can also become a major regional investment base and production hub, in which Japan may take part in new investment projects in the form of "Thailand+1". All GMS member countries, except China, are also member states of ACMECS and of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). (TNA)