Investments in EEC expected to help economy grow 5 per cent
The Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) is estimated to attract investment of Bt300 to Bt400 billion per year, which would help the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) reach the goal of 5 per cent growth, Kanit Sangsubhan, secretary-general of the Eastern Economic Corridor Policy Committee, said on Monday.
Kanit was speaking at a virtual seminar “EEC Future: Private Investment in Infrastructure”, hosted by Krungthep Turakij newspaper.
“Despite the Covid-19 situation, the EEC area is attracting investments continually,” said Kanit.
“The Board of Investment [BoI] reported that in the first six months of 2021, the EEC attracted Bt126.6 billion in investment, or 33 per cent of the country’s total investment value.”
The EEC committee estimates that total investment in the EEC throughout the year could reach Bt300 billion.
“When the EEC development plan was drafted in 2017, to be executed until 2022, it was estimated that the EEC would generate up to Bt1.7 trillion in total investment value,” said Kanit.
“So far, over Bt1.6 trillion investment has been achieved, which means we could hit the target sooner than expected.”
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Kanit added that the development plan had been focusing on two key areas: attracting investors, which is the primary mission, and improving the urban environment as well as locals’ quality of life.
“Since the tourism industry would probably not recover fully from the impact of Covid-19 in 2022, investment in the EEC would be the key factor to boost next year's GDP,” Kanit added.
“We will focus on investments in target industries such as medical centres, 5G technology, digital infrastructure as well as the agricultural cluster initiative.”