Kra Isthmus Canal on backburner

Thongchai Chaswath, director-general of Department of Consular Affairs, said that if the canal project to link the Gulf of Thailand with the Andaman Sea was implemented it would affect the status quo of regional security and economic arrangements.

But Thongchai, a Mandarin-speaking China expert at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said his view was personal and did not represent the ministry’s position.

China has proposed three potential routes for this scheme in southern Thailand as Beijing announced its Belt and Road initiative involving the ancient Silk Road maritime and land-based trade routes.

It plans to revive the routes to boost trade and investment ties with more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Thongchai said there were a number of key factors that made the Kra Canal project unlikely at this stage, including the interests of existing stakeholders, such as Singapore, being affected.

He said the regional security arrangements and the US’s interests would also be affected, while there was the deep-seated fear of China’s threat to consider as well.

The Kra Canal project would also be in conflict with the Dawei deep-sea port scheme in Myanmar in which Thailand is a key proponent, said Thongchai.

 Thailand should work better with Myanmar and other countries, especially, Japan, China and South Korea, to develop the Dawei port and industrial complex, located close to the Thai-Myanmar border at Kanchanaburi.

The Dawei port, situated in the Andaman Sea, will be linked with Thailand’s Mab Ta Phut deep-sea port in the Gulf of Thailand via a 400-kilometre highway.

This could serve an objective similar to the Kra Canal project in terms of linking the Pacific and Indian oceans for increased trade and investment.

Thongchai made his remarks at last week’s Bangkok Bank seminar on China-Thailand cultural links.

Dr Sompop Manarungsan, president of Panyapiwat Institute of Management, said at the seminar that the close Thai-Chinese cultural linkage could boost prosperity for both countries.

However, he urged Thailand to adapt to changes in China’s economic policy as Vietnam had already overtaken Thailand as China’s second largest trading partner in Asean after Malaysia with bilateral trade between the countries estimated to top US$80 billion (Bt2.8 trillion) this year. Thailand has slipped to third spot due to sluggish growth in recent years.

“China is becoming less of a world factory that we’ve known in the past two-three decades so we need to diversify our exports to China,” Sompop said. 

“Exports of Thai rubber and other commodities have dropped as China faces an export slowdown since our major exports are raw materials for re-export by China.

“Now, the Chinese are focussing on overseas investment and expanding its service sector as well as urbanisation so there are new opportunities on tourism and other services in which we have competitive advantages.

“Thai businessmen should also maximise their overseas Chinese connections in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam as Thailand has a geographical advantage due to its central location in mainland Asean, which has a combined population of 240 million accounting for 0.7 per cent of world GDP [gross domestic product].

“This advantage will be further boosted by the Thai-Chinese high-speed train project linking southern China with Asean via the Bangkok-Nong Khai-Laos route.”