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Call for border opening 110-km Bong



October 5, 1998 							
								
     								


Call for border opening
110-km Bong Tee-Tavoy highway planned

Preecha Srisathan
Various business interests are encouraging investor groups to press the
government to open a Thai-Burmese border pass in Bong Tee village of Saiyok
district, Kanchanaburi province.
Fishing, logging, property development, and construction are viewed as
business potential if the Thai and Burmese governments agree to open the
Bong Tee border pass to facilitate a project to build a 110-km highway
between Bong Tee, Kanchanaburi, and Burma's port town of Tavoy.
Spearheading the border pass campaign are the Kanchanaburi Tavoy
Development Co and its Burmese partner KLM Co which joined forces to
acquire a 30-year concession on the Bong Tee-Tavoy highway project from the
Burmese government.
Backing the move are fishing operators from Paknam district, Samut Prakan
province, under the patronage of Samut Prakan MP Somporn Asavahame. The
operators are interested in transporting their catch via the Bong Tee-Tavoy
short cut.
However, sources pointed out that the business needed to open the Bong Tee
border pass most was logging because it would give the fastest return.
According to sources, there are a number of logs left in Burma's border
area opposite Bong Tee. The area used to be controlled by a Karen ethnic
group but the rebel movement was defeated by the Burmese government two
years ago.
Col Samphan Youngpakul, chief-of-staff of the Ninth Infantry Division, said
that Burmese troops opposite Muang district of Kanchanaburi had contacted
his division and offered to sell over 3,000 logs including teak seized from
the Karens. The logs were left in Burma about 1-2 kilometres from the
border. There is also processed wood left in the same area.
The Burmese troops claimed that Maj-Gen Thura Chit Maung, commander of the
Tavoy sea patrol force, had ordered them to contact the nearest Thai
military camp to arrange for the sale, Col Samphan said.
It was reported that most of the logs and processed wood were the products
of Soonthorn Rasameererkset alias Sia Hook who had earlier enjoyed logging
permission granted by the Karens.
According to sources, Sia Hook, who is also an adviser to the Kanchanaburi
Industrial Council, is lobbying for the right to retrieve the logs and
processed wood from Burma. Therefore, he is joining the movement for
opening of the Bong Tee border pass to facilitate the import of his products.
Land speculators in Kanchanaburi and from Bangkok form another party
wishing the border pass to open. These investors had bought thousands of
rai of land near the proposed border pass from villagers before the start
of the current economic slump.
Those land plots have the status of national forest reserves but it was
reported that the Forestry Department would terminate the status because of
its deteriorated condition. Part of the land has ownership documents while
the rest has none.
The purchase was priced at 2,000-5,000 baht per rai but locals said that it
has soared to as much as almost 100,000 baht per rai for plots claimed to
be near locations of new buildings of state agencies, industrial estates,
and a customs office planned to emerge in the border area.
Property development was also anticipated on the Burmese side. Sing
Tangcharoenchaichana, president of the Kanchanaburi Industrial Council,
said he was informed that the owner of the Baiyoke Kandawgyi Hotel in Burma
planned to build a new five-star hotel and a casino in the border area
opposite Bong Tee.
Attempts by the Thai private sector to have the Bong Tee border pass opened
have been continuing for almost three years. Investors have invited the
authorities to field trips to convince them of the border opening.
Representatives from the House Tourism Committee, the Commerce Ministry,
and the National Economic and Social Development Board have been taken to
survey the area and to seminars on its potential development. Investors
have also sponsored a tour for town planning officials to study the
possibility of developing a new complex of state agencies including customs
facilities there.
However, the investor campaign has run into obstructions from the National
Security Council.
Construction of the route would destroy the watershed which forms the
borderline between Thailand and Burma in Kanchanaburi, NSC deputy
secretary-general Varima Phosombat said.
The disappearance of the watershed would affect border demarcation which
both countries had yet to settle and might have an impact on mutual relations.
The Bong Tee-Tavoy route and the opening of the border pass would encourage
illegal immigration, illicit trade and destruction of natural resources
both in Thailand and Burma, she said.
Although Burmese authorities have cleared landmines from the planned route
of the highway which used to be a battlefield between the Burmese military
regime and ethnic groups, construction of the highway was still dangerous
due to possible attacks from Mon ethnic groups which still existed in the
border area, she warned.
Lt-Gen Ruamsak Chaikomin, former deputy commander of the Third Army Region
and president of the Kanchanaburi History Association, commented that
Kanchanaburi had been a battlefield between Thailand and Burma 24 times out
of the total 44 Thai-Burmese wars recorded.
The highway which would head for Kanchanaburi would pose security questions
because it did not take long to reach Bangkok from Kanchanaburi, he noted. 
However, the investor campaign has run into obstructions from the National
Security Council.
Construction of the route would destroy the watershed which forms the
Thai-Burmese borderline, NSC deputy secretary-general Varima Phosombat
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© Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 1998
Last Modified: Mon, Oct 5, 1998
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