Thai public, private sectors to jointly develop plastic cluster

BANGKOK, March 12 (TNA) - The state-run Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT), under the Ministry of Industry, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the private sector, including PTT Global Chemical Public Company Limited (PTTGC), the Plastic Industry Club of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and the Plastics Institute of Thailand to jointly study the development of a plastic cluster in Mae Sot District of the northwestern Tak Province, bordering Myanmar. Thai Industry Minister Chakramon Phasukvanich told journalists in Bangkok on Thursday that the planned plastic cluster will be developed on a 2,000 rai-plot of land, where plastic products should then be conveniently exported to neighboring Myanmar. IEAT Governor Verapong Chaiperm said that the joint study on Mae Sot's plastic cluster development will take about nine months and the cluster should start its commercial operations by 2017. According to the IEAT chief, the construction cost of the plastic cluster is estimated at 2 billion baht and, once completed, it should draw investment worth 10 billion baht from manufacturers who can rely on raw materials from PTTGC. Meanwhile, the Thai industry minister assessed that, as the value of border trade in Mae Sot has been growing well from 70 billion baht last year, border trade between Thailand and Myanmar should further grow to 100 billion baht this year. (TNA)