$200m contribution set for ACMECS fund
THE Cabinet yesterday decided to set aside a budget of US$200 million (Bt6.4 billion) as contribution for the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) fund within five years.
Nattaporn Jatusripitak, spokesman for the deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs, said “a budget of US$40 million, for this year’s contribution, will be allocated from the central budget and those for the remaining four years will be from the annual budget”.
ACMECS is a grouping of five countries – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Although ACMECS was born in 2003, there is no financial mechanism to raise capital to finance development projects, which have been normally funded through borrowings and aid from partner countries.
“Last year, Thailand chaired ACMECS. We’ve presented the ACMECS master plan built on three pillars: seamless connectivity, synchronised ACMECS economies, and smart and sustainable ACMECS. Then, we’ve discussed about an ACMECS fund aiming to give financial and technical support to projects under the ACMECS master plan,” Nattaporn said.
Such support included contract and consulting services, feasibility studies of projects, studies of environmental and social impacts and project expenses, which will develop projects capable of raising funds from the private sector and international funding sources.
The initial amount of the ACMECS fund will start at $500 million. Thailand will contribute $200 million and the other four countries – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam – will together contribute $100 million. The remaining $200 million will be contributed by partner countries for development (Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States).
Nattaporn said that after this, two more funds – the ACMECS Infrastructure Financing Facility and the ACMECS Project-based Financing Facility – would be set up.
