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Thailand not backing Kra Canal project for now

BANGKOK — The Thai government has reiterated that it has not backed a controversial project to construct the Kra Canal that would connect the Gulf of Thailand to the Andaman Sea across southern Thailand.

An artist's vision of the Kra Canal, which the Thai government says is not a priority. Credit: Bangkok Post

An artist's vision of the Kra Canal, which the Thai government says is not a priority. Credit: Bangkok Post

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BANGKOK — The Thai government has reiterated that it has not backed a controversial project to construct the Kra Canal that would connect the Gulf of Thailand to the Andaman Sea across southern Thailand.

Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said over the weekend that the government is treating several other development projects as priority and the Kra canal project is not one of them.

Lieutenant General Sansern said the government is studying the pros and cons of the project - including its implications for national security and budget expenditures – and the public should be wary of any news stories claiming the project is going ahead.

He was likely responding to moves by a group of businessmen and former political leaders to encourage the public to get the government to endorse the project. This includes composing songs in support of constructing the canal.

Supporters of the project claim that it will offer an alternative shipping lane to the Straits of Malacca by linking the Indian Ocean with the Gulf of Thailand, and in doing so, provide a boost to the Thai shipping industry,

But the proposal has never taken off despite first being proposed decades ago because of the likely prohibitive cost and the risk of further alienating the restive southern provinces of Thailand.

“Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has emphasised the [pro-Kra Canal] movement has not been not approved by the government and the project is still pending a study,” said Lt Gen Sansern.

In early 2016, former prime minister and then-privy councillor Tanin Kraivixien submitted an open letter to Gen Prayuth, urging him to review the Kra Canal project’s implications.

In the letter, Mr Tanin said the project had been suspended earlier due to international relations and security-related issues.

However, China and other Asia-Pacific nations have expressed interest in studying new maritime routes.

Mr Tanin further wrote that a feasibility study of the project was a good idea.

At the time, Gen Prayuth recognised the government could not cover the steep costs to properly build the Kra Canal, which would require 135km of digging.

He had previously also said that the government must evaluate whether the implementation of the canal plan, which would cut the country into two sections, was in fact a good idea and whether it would create problems in the country’s administration.

Besides Mr Thanin, backers of the project include a group of retired generals which has formed an organisation called the Thai Canal Association for Study and Development.

“We hope the people will send a message to the government to pick up this project,” General Pongthep Tesprateep, a former army chief of staff who chairs the association, told the Nikkei Asian Review in an interview last year.

“It is a project that is very good for our country and the whole world, but until now has been left under the table gathering dust.”

The association organised an international conference in Bangkok in September last year on the project and said that one of the most viable routes for the canal would run from Nakhon Si Thammarat, which faces the Gulf of Thailand, through Phatthalung, Trang, and then Krabi onto the Andaman Sea.

Gen Pongthep also told the conference that the association has already gathered over 200,000 signatures from academics, associations and citizens in the affected areas who want to see the canal built.

Another powerful pro-canal group is the Thai-Chinese Culture and Economy Association of Thailand, a Bangkok-based organisation with close links to Beijing that is headed by former Thai Deputy Prime Minister Bhokin Bhalakula.

Mr Bhokin, who has called for the Kra Canal to be considered for inclusion in President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, claimed that Beijing is supportive of the idea, but is waiting for Thailand to approve the canal formally.

“They respect Thai sovereignty and do not want to force Thailand to accept Chinese ideas,” he told Nikkei Asian Review. AGENCIES

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