Stories tagged with saen
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Chiang Saen’s port project slumping off
Local officials and businessmen in Chiang Saen, a port town along the Mekong River in northern Thailand, are beginning to worry that a government-promised port project is in danger of being abandoned. The town’s existing port facility is considered too small to handle the anticipated increase in trade between China, Laos and Thailand, but the government’s plan to develop has been extremely slow off the blocks.
Look across the Mekong River to the Laos side and it’s obvious that Laos and its Chinese-backed consortium are taking things seriously. Building is roaring ahead at a frenetic pace, even by Laotian standards, thanks to plenty of Chinese cash and a surplus of work. Businessmen on the Thai side of the river are having trouble even acquiring land to set up their trade bases due to tricky land title issues.
Laos, however, is allowing Chinese investors and the Chinese government itself to lease enormous tracts of land to develop. Projects in the works include an entire new town to accommodate 100,000 Chinese migrants, along with golf courses, casinos, hotels, shopping centres and parks. This initial mega-project is expected to be completed sometime in 2009, while Thailand’s efforts will likely still be languishing in the development vacuum that so often consumes ambitious projects in the kingdom.
Posted by: Andrew on 29 Sep 2008, 13:14