Big shift to Dawei predicted | Bangkok Post: business

Thai heavy industry is likely to shift to industrial estates in Burma's western coastal city of Dawei instead of setting up facilities in southern Thailand or Map Ta Phut, warns the government's economic think-tank.

To prepare for massive development, Thailand needs to construct infrastructure to link Dawei to the Eastern Seaboard in Chon Buri.

The Burmese government is promoting the development of a huge port and industrial estate development in Dawei (Tavoy), for which SET-listed Italian Thai Development Plc will be a major contractor. The first-phase contract that ITD has signed for the 10-year project is worth an estimated US$8 billion. The entire project could be worth $58 billion or more.

Dawei isn't much today, but port development could be 10 times that of Laem Chabang in Thailand.