Germany eyes to invest in Bangkok-Hua Hin rail-track, industrial waste projects

BANGKOK, February 11 (TNA) - Germany has expressed its interest in investing in a new rail-track project in Thailand, linking Bangkok with seaside Hua Hin District in the upper southern Prachuap Khiri Khan Province and an industrial waste management project in the Thai East. Thai Industry Minister Chakramon Phasukavanich told journalists on Wednesday, after his meeting with German Ambassador to Thailand Rolf Schulze and his delegation at his ministry in Bangkok, that Germany has eyed to invest in the construction of the short-haul, standard-gauge rail-track, as the major European nation has its own established technology in the field and is ready for the investment project, citing the country's globally-wellknown Siemens industrial group as an example. Chakramon said that Germany, however, first asked for details of the project from the Thai government for a thorough study before a final decision. Besides, the German top envoy expressed the readiness of a German company in Chon Buri Province in the Thai East to expand its investment in industrial waste management to cater for mercury wastes left by oil rigs of PTT Public Company Limited (PTT), Thailand's largest petroleum firm, whose mercury wastes have been shipped for treatment in Germany and Switzerland so far. As Germany is considering to set up a new industrial waste management plant in a Thai industrial estate, the industry minister acknowledged he told the German delegation that Thailand has a plan to open a new waste management industrial estate and his ministry will seek cooperation from Germany and Japan in the near future to help send experts to Thailand to give advice on the plan. According to the industry minister, the German delegation proposed that his ministry send a team of concerned officials for a study trip on the issue to Germany soon. (TNA)