Thailand, Myanmar to meet on Dawei deep seaport development

BANGKOK, October 26 (TNA) - Thai and Myanmar joint panels will meet in Thailand early next month to discuss cooperation on the development of the Dawei special economic zone and related projects in Myanmar. Government Spokesperson Sansanee Nakpong told a press conference that Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra chaired a meeting with representatives of major ministries in Bangkok Friday to prepare for the forthcoming meetings of the joint Thai-Myanmar committees. Sansanee said that there are two joint Thai-Myanmar panels, one is the high-level committee co-chaired by Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong and the other is the joint coordination committee co-chaired by Minister Attached to the Thai Prime Minister's Office Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan, noting that Thailand will host the meetings on November 7-8. According to the spokeswoman, initially, three topics have been prepared for the Thai-Myanmar discussions, including a project to build a 132-kilometer-long road from Dawei to the Thai border, the Dawei deep seaport project and a project to build a 33-megawatt power plant and its initial power transmission network in the Dawei economic zone. The government spokeswoman acknowledged after the joint Thai-Myanmar committees' meetings conclude, the leaders of both nations will then raise the results at this year's leadership summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Cambodia, scheduled for November 17-20. (TNA)