CPN invests more to ensure 2014 opening of Rayong centre
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Central Pattana (CPN) is anxious to get its new shopping centre in Rayong open, and has pushed its investment in the project up to Bt3.2 billion in the latter half of this year.
CentralPlaza Rayong is now scheduled to open in December 2014.
The Rayong project follows two other CPN openings, in Koh Samui and in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom province.
Wallaya Chirathivat, senior executive vice president for business development and project construction for CPN, said the company was focusing on aggressive business expansion to maintain continuous growth.
The company is trying to beat competitors into the country’s high-potential areas, she said.
In the Eastern region, CPN sees the potential of Rayong because the province has a vibrant economy and is Thailand’s biggest industrial centre, where 19 industrial estates (including the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate and Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate) are located.
The estates promote industrial development and the development of transport and logistics systems. The province is also a centre of the petrochemical industry and is considered the Detroit of Asia. It is a production base for many of the world’s leading auto-makers and a centre of Thailand’s agricultural industry.
The company believes that Rayong will become eastern Thailand’s gateway to Cambodia and Vietnam. Growth in the province will be promoted by the government’s mega-projects, including the Bangkok-Chon Buri-Rayong high-speed train, the Chon Buri-Pattaya-Map Ta Phut motorway, the Asian Highway R10 route, and the Southern Coastal Corridor that connects Thailand (Bangkok-Trat), Cambodia and Vietnam.
When comparing its economic scale with the population size, Rayong is ranked high. The province has the highest per capita income of Bt1.25 million per year, and gross provincial product of Bt750 billion, the highest in the Eastern region and second only to Bangkok nationwide. The number of real-estate projects, particularly condominiums, is rapidly increasing and the growth is expected to continue, Wallaya said.
Meanwhile, CPN’s investment overseas, especially in Asean countries, has continued, with a plan to open one shopping centre in an Asean country in the final quarter of this year or the first quarter of 2014, she added.
The company has maintained its sales-growth target of at least 15 per cent this year although domestic purchasing power has shown signs of only slight growth in the second half.
