Thursday, January 26, 2012

Thailand PM touts Dawei in India

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Thursday, 26 January 2012 18:21 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Burma’s Dawei deep-sea port industrial zone could be India’s long-sought transport corridor to Southeast Asia.

In her address to business associations in New Delhi on Wednesday, Shinawatra said Thailand is commitment to building a deep sea port in southern Burma and a massive industrial complex to serve as a gateway to Southeast Asian countries, according to an article on the Indianexpress.com website.

Estimated to cost more than $50 billion when completed, and to be implemented in multiple phases, the Dawei project could be the biggest infrastructure project ever in Southeast Asia.

Once translated into reality, the shipping-industrial complex will put the recent Chinese port development in Gwadar (Pakistan) and Hambantota (Sri Lanka) and Kyauk Phyu (Myanmar) into the shade, the article said.

Unlike the Chinese ports, which are surrounded by underdeveloped hinterlands, Shinawatra’s proposal for a Chennai-Dawei corridor will connect economically prosperous regions. From Chennai, Dawei is directly across on the other side of the Bay of Bengal.

The Dawei development project also came up for discussion in Delhi this week in talks with Burma’s visiting foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin.         

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