Thailand, Burma, Agree to Push Deep-water Port Project

Thailand & Burma establish joint committee to facilitate construction of the border Dawei deep-seas port.

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra met with Myanmar Vice President Nyan Tun at Government House in Bangkok to discuss the Dawei projects, which have only made little headway and remained in need of an estimated 50 billion U.S. dollars in new funding.

The two neighboring countries have formed a high-level joint committee to discuss ways and means to facilitate the construction of the Dawei deep-sea port, an industrial estate, a gas pipeline and other infrastructure such as roads and railway to link the Myanmar coastal town with the Thai border province of Kanchanaburi.

The Yingluck government has assigned several Cabinet officials to sit in the Thai-Myanmar joint committee for the Dawei special economic zone projects, including Deputy Prime Minister Kittirat na Ranong, Energy Minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal, Industry Minister Prasert Boonchaisook, Transport Minister Chatchart Sitthipan and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul.

Thailand has offered to help the Myanmar government find the money to finance the projects after Dawei Development Co (DDC), the Thai firm given a concession by the Myanmar government in 2010 to run the Dawei projects had reportedly planned to downsize the Dawei special economic zone.