Italian-Thai limits role in Dawei project

The Italian-Thai Development (ITD) is increasingly confident of its prospects for the Dawei seaport project after the setting up of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) by the government to be responsible for project management.

ITD president Premchai Karnasuta said that Italian-Thai would transfer the management rights to the SPV and eventually some eight SPVs would be established to handle all the projects in Dawei. The details will be finalised within this month and the SPVs would be set up by the end of this year.

A high-ranking official meeting between Thailand and Myanmar is scheduled for next month, to finalise details of the investment. Dawei, to house a deep sea port and a major industrial site, has been held as a major part of Thailand’s East-West Corridor, a linkage with other Asean countries.

ITD would hold a stake in all eight SPVs of not less than 25 per cent, based on the evaluation of its capital already invested in the project. The company would invest about Bt20 billion in the project from this year until 2014, initially for the construction of a seaport, road, and industrial estate in the primary phase.

The Thai and Myanmar governments each will hold 30 per cent stake in the SPV with another 40 per cent owned by other individual investors such as from Japan and Korea. The Thai government will let its state enterprises, such as PTT, to hold a stake in Dawei and the Finance Ministry will consider the issues.

source: Eleven Myanmar

http://elevenmyanmar.com/business/2754-italian-thai-limits-role-in-dawei-project