The Board of Investment (BoI) has been told to weigh the possibility of providing promotional privileges to Thai investors in Dawei to make the Myanmar megaproject more attractive.
"If we take Dawei as a strategic project for Thailand, and if we want Dawei to become viable, the government needs to come up with incentives to support the Thai investments there," said Transport Minister Chatchart Sithipan.
The government has yet to set a time frame for the study, but the minister said the projects should not duplicate existing investments in Thailand.
The projects that the BoI should support include steel and raw materials for the car industry, Mr Chatchart said yesterday after a meeting to monitor the progress of Dawei development chaired by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
According to Mr Chatchart, agencies that used to work on Eastern Seaboard development were told to prepare data that can be used for the Dawei project.
The information will be presented at the meeting of six committees on Dawei during Dec 16-17 in Myanmar, to be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong.
The meeting yesterday agreed upon technical assistance on infrastructure, transport, energy, IT, community development and regulations for Dawei.
Thailand and Myanmar earlier reaffirmed their commitment to developing the Dawei special economic zone during November's Asean summit in Cambodia. They hope to complete the first phase of the project by 2015.
The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on Dawei development and related projects on July 23 this year.
The eight core projects for the first phase of Dawei are toll roads, a deep-water seaport, industrial estates, power plants, water supply and wastewater systems, telecommunications, a high-speed train and residential communities.
