China bets big on Thai industrial cluster with US$8.4 billion investment
The Eastern Economic Corridor, which spans three Thai provinces, is receiving more funding from Chinese investors than any other foreign country
China has become the leading source of foreign investment in a growing, state-fostered Thai industrial cluster, backed by commitments to help build a light-rail line, design an “aerotropolis” and possibly develop property in the area, an official from the Southeast Asian country said.
From 2019 to 2024, Chinese investors have received go-ahead certificates for projects worth US$8.4 billion – 16 per cent of all investment in the Eastern Economic Corridor cluster, which covers three provinces – according to Korthong Thongtham na Ayutthaya, acting director for a division of the corridor.
Only Thailand itself had been cleared to invest more in the corridor, with 37 per cent of the total. Japan ranked third with 12 per cent.
On the infrastructure side, a group of Chinese investors has joined a Thai consortium to build a 220km (136.7 miles) high-speed railway line through the 3,285 sq km (5,122 square miles) corridor, which lies south of Bangkok, the official told the Post at the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The consortium includes China Railway Construction Corporation.
The railway project, started seven years ago but suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic, should take five more years to complete, he said.