Japanese investors to participate in regional development projects

BANGKOK, July 11 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has invited Japanese investors to participate in projects to develop connectivity in the region, especially the Dawei special economic zone project in Myanmar. Premier Yingluck took an opportunity when Japanese Ambassador to Thailand Shigekazu Sato, Executive Vice President of Mitsui & Co. Seiichi Tanaka and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President of Thai Oil Public Company Limited Veerasak Kositpaisal paid a courtesy call on her at Bangkok's Government House on Thursday to invite Japanese investors to participate in the regional projects to develop connectivity in the region, pointing out that Japan will benefit from connection between the Dawei deep seaport in Myanmar and the Laem Chabang deep seaport in Thailand, expressing her hope that her invitation interests Mitsui & Co. and other Japanese companies. The prime minister also urged Thai and Japanese investors to jointly develop petrochemical industries. The executive vice president of Mitsui & Co., meanwhile, reported progress in a planned joint venture project with Thai Oil to use existing products as precursors for the production of export-oriented detergents, assessing that the joint venture should succeed by 2015. Executives of both companies then signed their joint venture contract to develop Thailand into a center of detergent precursors in the region. The prime minister said that the joint venture project is another step of good relations between the Thai and Japanese private sectors and the Thai Ministry of Energy will look for other cooperation projects with Mitsui & Co. (TNA)