November meeting planned to sort out Dawei issues
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will hold a meeting to seek conclusions on the Dawei deep-seaport project in Myanmar, expected to take place in Thailand on November 7 and 8 ahead of a joint announcement during the Asean meeting of November 17-20 in Cam
Sansanee Nakpong, spokeswoman of the Prime Minister’s Office, said yesterday that the meeting was set after a Myanmar-Thailand committee’s meeting chaired by Yingluck along with ministers and high-ranking officers.
The move came after talks between Thai and Myanmar leaders agreed on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session last month on setting up two joint committees and a subcommittee on six sectors regarding the development of the Dawei deep-sea port project.
Sansanee said that for the Myanmar-Thailand Joint High-level Committee on the Dawei Special Economic Zone and Its Related Project Areas (JHC), which will have Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong and Myanmar’s vice president as co-chairmen, Yingluck wanted to add directors from the Thai side, including permanent secretaries from all ministries and the secretary-general of the Council of State. Previously, only the secretary-general of the Foreign Ministry was to be a director from Thai side.
The other committee is the Myanmar-Thailand Joint Coordinating Committee Development in the Dawei Special Economic Zone and Its Related Project Areas (JCC), which will be co-chaired by Nivatthamrong Boonsongpaisal, minister of the PM’s Office, and Myanmar’s industry minister.
“Now, we are coordinating with both sides. However, the vice president of Myanmar wants to meet Yingluck before the meeting,” Sansanee said.
To achieve a memorandum of understanding between Thailand and Myanmar on development of the Dawei project, Yingluck also assigned the National Economic and Social Development Broad to work with participants from such ministries as Finance, Industry, Transport and Commerce to find solutions in regards to joint procedures on infrastructure such as power plants and ports as well as models for joint ventures for the first phase. Returns on investment should be taken into account and people kept well informed.
“Outcomes should be concluded before the meeting,” Sansanee said.
She said the meeting yesterday raised neither the joint-venture issue nor Italian-Thai Development, the Kingdom’s leading construction firm, which was awarded the right from Myanmar government to construct the road link from Thailand to Dawei and industrial-estate facilities. However, ITD expressed its view that the government should invest in the infrastructure to restore private investors’ confidence.
The JHC is prepared to discuss three major issues in an effort to get the project completed by 2015. First is the 132-kilometre Thailand-Myanmar road link via Baan Numphuron in Kanchanaburi. The Dawei deep-sea port project is the second issue. Third is the 33-megawatt power plant and transmission pipelines for the first phase of the Dawei special economic zone.
