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Further Information Regarding the Eastern Economic Corridor in Thailand

Transcript of the above video:

In this video today, this is a follow up video discussing the Eastern Economic Corridor and some further details with respect to how that bill is proceeding. This is an article from the Bangkok Post published 28th September 2017. The title of the article is “EEC bill passes first reading.”

To quote directly from the article, “The National Legislative Assembly in L.A. on Thursday accepted the Eastern Economic Corridor bill and its first reading and would have its committee scrutinized the bill in 60 days. The EEC comprises three provinces - Chachensau, Chonburi and Rayong. Other areas in the East can be added later by royal decree. The bill offered privileges to investors such as the rights to own land and properties, bring in foreigners and conduct certain financial transactions. They will also be eligible for tax exemption or reduction and other benefits. The details of the privileges will be defined by a committee.”

So what's going on here? Well we've discussed this previously, the Eastern Economic Corridor initiative is seems to be something of a darling agenda, if you will, of the current government. It's something that they've prioritized heavily and it's an agenda that we're probably going to see enacted sooner rather than later I would expect. And it looks to me that they're going to be significant benefits for foreign nationals under the EEC framework. So I expect it will look somewhat similar although probably wider in scope as far as benefits but somewhat similar to the board of investment scheme that we currently see in Thailand. They may, in fact, place adjudication of benefits under BOI.

It remains to be seen how exactly this is going to be implemented but it's important we've noted in previous videos, longer term leases are probably going to be offered in this zone. Certain ownership advantages are going to be offered in this zone. Why is Thailand doing this? Well they basically are looking to beef up that particular geographic location in terms of investment and economic activity. There are port facilities etc down there. There are already significant port facilities down there and they're looking to enhance them as basically I think the reason why this this proposal is being promulgated.

The other thing is you have to keep in mind that they're also enhancing certain infrastructure most notably the rail infrastructure in Thailand and as well as the airport infrastructure Thailand and I think that this eastern economic corridor agenda is sort of running hand in hand with both of those programs because they're basically looking to again bring Thailand up into the so-called Thailand 4.0 economy you know where the economy is just more enhanced. That being said, we'll keep you updated as we have more information as to the specific privileges and benefits that are going to be affiliated with the EEC program and as we update you, we’ll know more, you'll know more and we'll just keep doing these videos until the law is promulgated and until we see and hopefully we'll also see a regulatory framework that we can discuss as well.