Posted on 24 Mar 2015
It wants the proportion of public-private partnerships (PPPs) to increase to 20% from 15% to speed up development and ease the state's financial burden, a senior Finance Ministry official said.
The ministry will discuss with the Transport Ministry the possibility of making more projects PPPs including the 34.5-kilometre Pink Line monorail project from Khae Rai to Min Buri or high-speed train routes from Bangkok to Chiang Mai or Hua Hin, said Kulit Sombatsiri, director-general of the State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo).
The PPP Policy Committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, earlier assigned Sepo to consult the Transport Ministry and the Public Debt Management Office about increasing the value of PPPs for transport projects.
Finance Minister Sommai Phasee said the annual budget of about 250 billion baht set for infrastructure investment would be equally financed by the annual budget and borrowing from both domestic and international markets and investment under PPPs.
Some US$4-5 billion borrowing from foreign markets could come from the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank or the Asean Infrastructure Fund jointly established by the Asian Development Bank and Southeast Asian countries.
The 2-trillion-baht infrastructure investment, spanning eight years through 2022, will be proposed by Sepo to seek approval from the PPP Policy Committee on April 3 before being forwarded to the cabinet and publicised in the Royal Gazette later next month.
Mr Sommai admitted the infrastructure investment, mainly in transport and logistics systems, had moved at a slow pace and caused Thailand's infrastructure ranking in the 2014 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook to decline to 48th from 47th in 2013.
The new PPP Act has loosened regulations governing joint investment with the private sector.
It requires only projects valued from 1-5 billion baht and involving infrastructure and public services to go before the committee, while other projects can be approved by relevant ministries.
