Thai firm to study Golden gateway l

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Subject: Thai firm to study Golden gateway link with Burma

DPA - Kyodo 21/3
              Thai firm to study Golden gateway link with Myanmar 

DPA-Kyodo

              YANGON -- A Thai steel and communications conglomerate has
signed a memorandum of
              understanding with the Myanmar government to study the
construction of two ports and a
              "land bridge" linking the Andaman Sea to the Gulf of Thailand,
reports said yesterday. 

              Sahaviriya Group Corporation's chairman Suthee Singha-Saneh
signed the document with
              Myanmar Port Authority managing director Tin Oo in a ceremony
held in Yangon on
              Monday, said the New Light of Myanmar newspaper. 

              The Thai conglomerate was granted permission to carry out a
study within six months on
              its "Golden Gateways Project". 

              Under the proposal, the Thai group would develop two deep sea
ports, one at Bokpyinn in
              southern Myanmar and the other at Bang Saphan, on the Gulf of
Thailand, officials said. 

              "These two ports, after connection by a land bridge consisting
of a highway, a railway and
              natural-gas pipeline, will open up an ideal avenue for
commerce between the Middle East
              and Europe on the one hand and the Far East and America on the
other," said the state-run
              Myanmar newspaper. 

              Myanmar's Bokpyinn, on the Andaman Sea, is about 60 km from
the Myanmar-Thailand
              border, while Bang Saphan is about 30 km from the border on
the Thai side. The project
              aims to link the two ports by road and rail. 

              The Sahaviriya group will undertake the project on a
build-operate-transfer basis. 

              When it is completed, the new route between Bang Saphan and
Bokpyinn can be used as a
              gateway for Thai trade with Western countries, replacing the
long journey via the Straits of
              Malacca, and thereby reducing transportation costs. 

              The proposal is a new variation of Thailand's long postponed
"southern land-bridge" scheme
              which first started decades ago as the proposed Kra Canal, and
evolved more recently into
              the ambitious Southern Seaboard scheme with two ports, a
highway and pipeline link
              between Krabi and Surat Thani provinces in southern Thailand.
-- DPA, Kyodo.