Ranong News

Bangladesh and Thailand are planning to launch direct coastal shipping, connecting the Chittagong Port in the Bay of Bengal with the Ranong Port in the East of the Andaman coast in south-western Thailand. Bangladesh Ambassador to Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem said: “Both Bangladesh and Thailand are planning to start direct coastal ships. The coastal communication between Bangladesh and Thailand will take place with the help of Chittagong and Ranong ports. Goods shipped between the two countries currently pass through Singapore and take two weeks, a time period that should be cut to six days with direct shipping, according to a Thai transport official.

South Korea mulls a US$4.8-billion (S$6.5 b) "rail canal" project to Thailand that would be able to cut 2,000km and two days off the shipping route through the Strait of Malacca, reports Reuters. The project that could entail the new concept of a "dry canal" for conveying ships by rail, will be submitted for Thailand's consideration, aiming to provide a new trade lane via this country's land bridge, sources said. The 57-kilometre route would run from Ranong province's Kra Buri district on the west to Chumphon on the east, Jinyu Choi, director-general of the Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI) said. The construction cost would also be cheaper than that of a conventional canal, estimated at US$7.1 billion.

Myanmar's navy found a boat carrying more than 200 Bangladeshis, the government said on Friday, after the military chief said some migrants landing in Malaysia and Indonesia this month are pretending to be Rohingya Muslims so they can get U.N. aid. The western Myanmar state of Rakhine said the boat was from Thailand and the people smugglers' plan had been to send the migrants to Thailand. The remarks are sure to spark concern after the United States lambasted Myanmar this week for failing to address the cause of the crisis, which observers say stems from Myanmar's refusal to recognise the Rohingya, an ethnic minority group living in western Myanmar, as citizens. Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya are stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions.

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.

Purse seining is well known as one of the most effective technologies for demersal fisheries. Today many nations support extensive fleets of 20 to 30-meter wood, steel, fiberglass or aluminum vessels working with nets that range of 500 to 1000 meters in length. Throughout Malaysia and Thailand, even in the wooden boat fleet, these vessels are typically equipped with sonar and Puretic-style hydraulic power-blocks for hauling back the nets. All of this was evidenced on a recent visit to the F.V. Sombatpomae owned by Khun Thayuth, who recently acquired it from a processor. The 20 by 7-m wood purse seiner was built 20 years ago in Mahachai on the Gulf of Thailand and brought around Singapore and through the Straits of Malacca to the Thai Andeman Sea port of Ranong.