Now let's look at a more mainstream paper, the Financial Times of London.
December 10, 2013 4:40 pm
Thailand seeks to build strong regional role
By Michael Peel in Bangkok
Protests and violence in Bangkok are squeezing an already shaky Thai economy – but a quieter revolution aimed at turning the country into a regional trade power is gathering pace.
Trucks are due to thunder from Wednesday over a vast new crossing on the Mekong river, connected to highways either side that opens up north Thailand as a way station for goods headed between China and the 10-strong Asean group of nations mainly to the south and east.
It is part of Bangkok’s broader regional ambition to become the dominant link for trade between China and Asean, where exports and imports surged more than sixfold to $400bn last year, from $55bn in 2002, according to the Chinese data provider Wind Information.
It is also meant to dovetail with the easing of regional trade barriers, as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations heads for the creation of a planned economic community of more than 500m people by 2015.
“If you see Thailand on the map, [it] is the centre of Asean,” said Yingluck Shinawatra, the country’s embattled prime minister, in an interview last week. “If we have good infrastructure, we can be?.?.?.?the hub of Asean.”
Some economists see Thailand’s regional strategy as crucial to its growth because of rising threats to its flagship cars-to-hard disks manufacturing export sector, including slowing global demand, inadequate logistics and competition from more technologically advanced neighbours.
The so-called Fourth Friendship Bridge, more than half a kilometre long between Thailand and Laos across the Mekong river, was funded at a cost of almost $50m by the two governments and Beijing, which has its own ambitions to further boost trade with Asean. The crossing will become the most important land route via Laos between China and Thailand – which does not have a border with the world’s second-largest economy.
“We had the capabilities to create a ‘golden decade’ in the past. We also have the power to create a ‘diamond decade’ in the future,” Chinese premier Li Keqiang told an audience of Asean leaders that included Ms Yingluck in September.
The promised apples-to-air-conditioners bonanza is stoking excitement across northern Thai business centres such as Chiang Mai, the country’s second-largest city, and its smaller neighbour Chiang Rai, where the dream is of a “southern silk road” stretching from China’s Yunnan province to Malaysia and beyond.
“It puts Chiang Rai on the international map,” proclaimed Pattana Sittisombat, a prominent local businessman, as he enthused about the new bridge and the myriad other roads, railways and trade zones either built or planned around it. “All the goods from China and from Asean can use these connections.”
The bridge is a regional trade landmark because it runs directly into Chiang Rai province, which has a big special economic zone and contains part of the so-called Golden Triangle where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet. Just two hours or so down the road from Chiang Rai town is the much larger city of Chiang Mai, with its highway and planned high speed rail link heading south to Bangkok and beyond.
“The gateway is in Chiang Rai,” said a senior official at the Chiang Mai Chamber of Commerce. “But it’s not the end of the journey: it’s the beginning.”
The rail link is one of a series of infrastructure projects that the Thai government wants to build to exploit the country’s geographical position and make it the dominant link between China and Asean. Thailand has good diplomatic relations with China, many business people of Chinese descent – and is an increasingly popular destination for newly wealthy Chinese tourists, attracted by publicity such as last year’s wildly popular comedy movie Lost in Thailand .
But the size of the obstacles to Ms Yingluck’s big economic ambition became clear within 48 hours of the premier speaking last week, as she was forced to call an election by anti-government protesters, who numbered at least 100,000.
A bill to push forward a 2.2tn baht ($68.6bn) infrastructure plan, including the high-speed Chiang Mai rail link, has been mired in political and legal disputes, as government opponents raise concerns about the lack of parliamentary scrutiny and the possibility of corruption.
The Fourth Friendship Bridge may be the last thing on Ms Yingluck’s mind right now, but it could yet prove important to her government’s efforts to revive a spluttering economy.
Chiang Rai’s Mr Pattana says the new crossing will offer new opportunities to expand further the estimated fourfold growth in China-linked trade through the city over the past eight years – but only if the project is handled right. As he says: “It depends on the market – and it depends on support from government policy also.”
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