{"id":19522,"date":"2025-09-13T21:25:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T21:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/19522\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T21:25:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T21:25:19","slug":"china-bets-big-on-thai-industrial-cluster-with-us8-4-billion-investment-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/19522\/","title":{"rendered":"China bets big on Thai industrial cluster with US$8.4 billion investment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">China has become the leading source of foreign investment in a growing, state-fostered Thai industrial cluster, backed by commitments to help build a light-rail line, design an \u201caerotropolis\u201d and possibly develop property in the area, an official from the Southeast Asian country said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">From 2019 to 2024, Chinese investors have received go-ahead certificates for projects worth US$8.4 billion \u2013 16 per cent of all investment in the Eastern Economic Corridor cluster, which covers three provinces \u2013 according to Korthong Thongtham na Ayutthaya, acting director for a division of the corridor.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Only Thailand itself had been cleared to invest more in the corridor, with 37 per cent of the total. Japan ranked third with 12 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>A lion\u2019s share of <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/economics\/article\/3047489\/china-becomes-thailands-top-source-foreign-investment-first?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chinese investment<\/a> is earmarked for projects related to electric vehicles (EVs) and energy, Thongtham na Ayutthaya said, with industry leader BYD at the head of the pack for EV factory investments in the corridor.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On the infrastructure side, a group of Chinese investors has joined a Thai consortium to build a 220km (136.7 miles) high-speed railway line through the 3,285 sq km (5,122 square miles) corridor, which lies south of Bangkok, the official told the Post at the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The consortium includes China Railway Construction Corporation.<\/p>\n<p>Thailand <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/economics\/article\/3291751\/thailands-eastern-economic-corridor-promised-hi-tech-utopia-will-it-deliver?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">launched the corridor<\/a> in 2017 to revitalise the provinces of Chonburi, Rayong and Chachoengsao through a concentration of facilities for advanced industry production.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The railway project, started seven years ago but suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic, should take five more years to complete, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China has become the leading source of foreign investment in a growing, state-fostered Thai industrial cluster, backed by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[15539,15542,15540,72,7628,114,15536,15541,13118,15538,113,8856,240,61,60,582,15537,1667],"class_list":{"0":"post-19522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-aerotropolis","9":"tag-bangkok","10":"tag-belt-and-road-summit","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-byd","13":"tag-china","14":"tag-china-railway-construction-corporation","15":"tag-chonburi","16":"tag-covid-19-pandemic","17":"tag-eastern-economic-corridor","18":"tag-economy","19":"tag-electric-vehicles","20":"tag-hong-kong","21":"tag-ie","22":"tag-ireland","23":"tag-japan","24":"tag-rayong","25":"tag-thailand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}