The Dawei deep-sea port industrial park on Myanmar’s southeastern seaboard will be partially developed by Italian-Thai Development with plans to open up the light industries zone by 2014, the contractor has announced.
The mega project suffered setbacks in funding earlier this year when a major Myanmar investor pulled out.
Since then, Italian-Thai Development (ITD), Thailand’s largest construction and engineering firm, has struggled to raise funding to build necessary infrastructure, such as roads, a telecoms network, a port and utilities.
ITD has a 51-per cent majority stake in Dawei Development Co (DDC), the joint venture that will establish the industrial complex, which will include garment, food and furniture factories.
“We will begin the construction of buildings and other facilities in this area at the beginning of next year. Everything will be ready to operate in 2014,” DDC managing director Somchet Thinaphong told the Bangkok Post.
However, overbearing inertia in the project has caused investors to shy away.
Japanese investors, a large source of investment capital into the emergent state, have expressed their worries in the project, realising the price tag of the essential infrastructure required.
The first phase of development that will see the construction of the port and roadways will cost $8.5 billion alone.
In light of the troubled waters faced by the deep-sea port project, ousted prime minster Thaksin Shinawatra has confirmed that he will visit the complex and joint committees established between the two nations to “discuss progress” and “acknowledge obstacles.”
