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Bt17-billion budget to be allocated for developing EEC


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Bt17-billion budget to be allocated for developing EEC

By The Nation

 

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Credit: EEC Office

 

The government plans to allocate Bt17 billion for development of the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) in fiscal 2020, as it wants to speed up investment in the region, especially in transport.

 

Kobsak Pootrakool, deputy secretary-general to Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, said the government is applying a holistic approach to budget allocation as it needs efficient coordination between many state agencies and educational institutions.

 

A part of the budget would be used for investment in the high-speed rail project currently waiting for the public-private partnership contract to be signed.

 

The Highways Department of the Transport Ministry will get the largest share of the budget of Bt9.9 billion, followed by Bt1.3 billion for the National Science and Technology Development Agency.

 

The Rural Roads department will receive Bt1.2 billion, the Royal Thai Navy Bt799 million and the EEC Office Bt752 million.

 

Kobsak said that the budget allocation would take into account the impact on the environment and promotion of small businesses in the region.

 

Educational institutions will also get funding, as they will play a critical role in human resource development for the EEC where an estimated 450,000 highly skilled labour force will be needed over a year.

 

Burapha University will get a total of Bt1.8 billion, of which Bt 46.3 billion is part of the EEC coordinated budget, Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-ok will get Bt629 million, Rajabhat Rajanagarindra University will receive Bt451 million and a branch of Kasetsart University will get Bt 50 million.

 

The government will also provide funding to support the three provinces in the EEC: Bt432 million will go to Chon Buri, Bt344.9 million to Rayong and Bt259.9 million to Chachoengsao.

 

The budget bill for fiscal 2020 will be deliberated by the Parliament later.

 

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-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-09-23

 

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23 minutes ago, jerojero said:

And another 3/4 billion Baht for military Navy. Is that spend really needed? Every step the gov't makes includes more more more for the military. How about a little more for health care or genuinely helping the poor.

If that military budget is spent in the usa than they do it to keep the trade balanced and to avoid getting taxed like china.

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1 hour ago, Oziex1 said:

Anyone have good info on the validity of this EEC is it a worthwhile project? Or just something to skim the budget although that will be done regardless. 

They are adopting a "holistic approach". That will ensure that access to the funds will be widely available (obviously to the appropriately qualified people and agencies). Thus the benefits which will come from this project will be widespread, again amongst the appropriately qualified.

 

Of course there will be robust procedures in place to guard against the understandable, if unfortunate, occasional overenthusiastic "informal" use of these funds. These procedures will examine, through a variety of committees, subcommittees and commissions, any suggestions that over enthusiasm on the part of the various stakeholders to make rapid use of funds led to misguided (but well intentioned) use of these monies.

 

I hope this helps with your concerns...

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3 hours ago, webfact said:

Bt17-billion budget to be allocated for developing EEC...........the government is applying a holistic approach to budget allocation

A waste of money. The Japanese have shown no enthusiasm and say there is insufficient skilled labour. Somkid the Salesman is out trying desperately to sell it to bankrupt counties like Turkey which shows how desperate they are. Still a holistic and crystal therapy approach won't go astray; anything is worth a try.

There is a global down turn happening at present so why would any country risk their money in Thailand which is still effectively run by generals. Particularly when they can see how bully boy Thailand treats companies like Honeywell and Kingsgate.

The signing of the HS rail contract with the GP Group and partners has stalled. Perhaps they are having second thoughts about getting into bed with the useless SRT after seeing as how they stuffed up the Honeywell project and are refusing to pay out 37 billion baht awarded against them. 

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3 hours ago, webfact said:

an estimated 450,000 highly skilled labour force will be needed over a year.

If its like much of Thailand a third of that number will have quit by the years end because they were not really prepared to work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week like the owners wish. And of course during the year people stayed home when it was rice harvest, lamyai picking, temple festival days and had a full 3 days when a person died in their village. Thai style is not the same as Chinese style.

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Agree with Cadbury above.

 

There is also another angle: the Chinese

 

The Chinese are aggressively looking for other countries to run their manufacturing engine from as the US isolates them and unravels the two economies. They will not have many places to go that are great options for them. But, the Thais might be willing to allow the Chinese to dominate the EEC at marginal benefit to Thailand -- as long as the Thai-Chinese elite are paid enough.

 

The Japanese, on the other hand, would not be interested in working alongside heaps of Chinese.

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So in summary they spend hundreds of billions of our tax money to offer incentives and cheap local labour to the rich - and foreign companies who are willing to invest and will walk away with the profits.
Great plan! Why don’t they just tell us what this EEC is really about - namely big budgets that contain the 30 % corruption margin that Thailand is known for all over the world and which will disappear into some deep pockets.
The project is also in the wrong location since we have seen on a recently distributed map of wealth distribution in Thailand that it should be located in the North East to develop the poorest part of Thailand and create jobs where they are mostly needed combined with much cheaper land prices which could save billions.

Also in comparison what private company would currently go on a spending spree of hundreds of billions when the local and world economy, industrial output, exports are all down and the only selling point here is cheap labor. The government can not even provide that labor because they already know the workers don’t exist but the government thinks they can create “skilled” workers by giving them a few months training.

So in reality this is just another scheme that has been created to make those involved and their cronies rich selling out to foreign companies to reap the profits and keep the poor Thais poor by selling them out for a minimum wage while wasting hundreds of billions of our taxes.

So business as usual - nothing new at all.
This country will never develop unless this kind of money is spent for education, development and innovation not another useless industrial estate selling cheap labour to foreign companies.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

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1 hour ago, Fex Bluse said:

Agree with Cadbury above.

 

There is also another angle: the Chinese

 

The Chinese are aggressively looking for other countries to run their manufacturing engine from as the US isolates them and unravels the two economies. They will not have many places to go that are great options for them. But, the Thais might be willing to allow the Chinese to dominate the EEC at marginal benefit to Thailand -- as long as the Thai-Chinese elite are paid enough.

 

The Japanese, on the other hand, would not be interested in working alongside heaps of Chinese.

Yes but reflagging is not viable as the US will look at where the money came from and who are the owners. Vietnam got into this conundrum already as was starting to allow the Chinese to do it which in turn will have their hand slapped. Not as easy done as it is said.

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1 minute ago, holy cow cm said:

Yes but reflagging is not viable as the US will look at where the money came from and who are the owners. Vietnam got into this conundrum already as was starting to allow the Chinese to do it which in turn will have their hand slapped. Not as easy done as it is said.

Good point.

I'm really looking forward to the Chinese "Long March" during which time most will stay home.

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2 hours ago, Cadbury said:

The signing of the HS rail contract with the GP Group and partners has stalled. Perhaps they are having second thoughts

Hard to guess what the delay is. It might be something as simple as getting a better "understanding" of how funds will be disbursed and/or more complicated as to what degree transparency can be limited (project approved under Article 44) to public disclosure if pressured by the House political opposition coalition.

The GP Group includes China state-owned enterprises and China is lending funds to Thailand for the project. So I don't think neither China nor Prayut would tolerate a Hopewell default situation by SRT.

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9 hours ago, jerojero said:

And another 3/4 billion Baht for military Navy. Is that spend really needed? Every step the gov't makes includes more more more for the military. How about a little more for health care or genuinely helping the poor.

The poor could due with some plastic boats, mama and three in one coffee to manage the yearly floods and drought conditions. Otherwise a few more red lights on the main highways to decrease traffic flow would be a nice touch.

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9 hours ago, Cadbury said:

A waste of money. The Japanese have shown no enthusiasm and say there is insufficient skilled labour. Somkid the Salesman is out trying desperately to sell it to bankrupt counties like Turkey which shows how desperate they are. Still a holistic and crystal therapy approach won't go astray; anything is worth a try.

There is a global down turn happening at present so why would any country risk their money in Thailand which is still effectively run by generals. Particularly when they can see how bully boy Thailand treats companies like Honeywell and Kingsgate.

The signing of the HS rail contract with the GP Group and partners has stalled. Perhaps they are having second thoughts about getting into bed with the useless SRT after seeing as how they stuffed up the Honeywell project and are refusing to pay out 37 billion baht awarded against them. 

If you add into the equation the fact that the infrastructure is at best poor, and you have a huge White Elephant.

The Infrastructures that needs some real development, and massive financial input are the basic things that all Business uses and are totally reliant upon.

Things such as reliable, clean, and plentiful water, An Electricity supply that is not just reliable, but is stable in use, an Internet Service that does not fail with the heat and every time there is rain, and correct and secure waste product facilities

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