Thailand eyes to become ASEAN hub of rail technology

BANGKOK, March 29 (TNA) - The Ministry of Transport plans to develop the Thai Kingdom to become an advanced rail technology hub for electric train systems in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Deputy Transport Minister Pailin Chuchottaworn announced the plan while opening the RAIL Asia Expo 2019 in Bangkok on March 28, in which over 120 global rail technology companies participated to showcase their innovations, together with over 1,000 international investors. Pailin said that as part of the plan, Thailand will open about three production and assembly plants of rail cars for electric train systems, with their total production capacity of 900 cars/bogies annually by 2027, in order to reduce the national cost of imported rail cars by over 10 times or over 70 billion baht. Besides, Thailand will reduce national costs of the maintenance and the import of rail car parts by over one billion baht annually, apart from the other national benefits in terms of relevant innovative technological transfers and more job creations in the Thai economy. While also delivering a speech on "Rail Car Assembly Plants Initiatives for Thailand", the deputy transport minister acknowledged that the opening of the production and assembly plants of rail cars in Thailand should also enable the country to then export the rail cars to neighboring countries, including Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam, known as the CLMV group, in the ASEAN Community (AC). (TNA)