The Eastern Seaboard Development Plan and Industrial Cluster in Thailand: A Quantitative Overview

Fumiharu Mieno

Chapter 3 in Aid as Handmaiden for the Development of Institutions, 2013, pp 81-105 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The Eastern Seaboard Development Plan (ESDP) was one of the largest infrastructure development projects in Thailand. Centred on the two major port facilities, Laem Chabang in Chonburi province and Map Ta Phut in Rayong province, it covered wide-ranging infrastructures including transportation, water utilities and industrial estates. Its purpose was to build up an industrial base for the next step of Thailand’s industrialization to strengthen labour-intensive industries and to create a heavy petrochemical industry utilizing natural gas in the Gulf of Thailand. The plan was initially designed in the late 1970s by the National Economic Social Development Board and was financed mainly by the World Bank and the government of Japan. As is discussed in Chapter 4 as well as Shimomura (2000, 2003), the execution process of the ESDP was characterized by much confusion and complicated domestic political conflicts and differences in the perceptions among the Thai government and the foreign donors. Nevertheless, the wide-ranging infrastructures in the plan doubtlessly contributed to Thailand’s remarkable industrialization since the mid-1980s and functioned as a central platform for the Thai economy.

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Petrochemical Industry; Foreign Direct Investment Inflow; Industrial Cluster; Industrial Estate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-02348-3_3

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137023483_3

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