The World Bank has urged the Thai government to hold an open bidding for the long-delayed Thai-Chinese high-speed railway project linking Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima to ensure transparency.
An open bidding process will optimise the country’s benefits and allow the government to compare costs and technology to be used by bidders, said Kiatipong Ariyapruchya, senior economist of World Bank.
While the Thai-Chinese railway project’s bidding may not be open since it is an urgent issue, the government should at least require that the terms of reference (TOR) be transparent, he said.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha invoked Section 44 of the interim charter to tackle stumbling blocks of the Thai-Chinese high-speed train project.
“It is a pity that Thailand did not invest in big-ticket transport infrastructure projects over the past 10 years, and now that it has a plan to do so, it should be materialised,” he said.
The 252.5-kilometre Thai-Chinese rail track is valued at 179 billion baht.
In the meantime, the World Bank has forecast the economic growth in East Asia and the Pacific region will slow down to 6.1% next year from 6.2% in 2017, due largely to China’s economic slowdown. It also projected that Thailand’s economy will expand 3.2% in 2017 and 3.3% in 2018, underpinned by increasing government investment and a slow recovery in private consumption.
The World Bank’s projection is slightly lower than the Bank of Thailand’s prediction of 3.4% growth this year as well as the 3.6% growth anticipated by the Fiscal Policy Office.
Vorawan Tarapoom, chairman of the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organization (FETCO), said the Thai economy is slowly recovering in line with the global economy.
Thailand's economy in the first quarter expanded at the fastest pace in three quarters, driven by recovering exports, an improving farm sector and rising private consumption. Thailand’s GDP grew by 3.3% year-on-year for the January-March period, accelerating from 3% in the previous quarter.
"Inflation has continued to increase due to higher crude oil prices in the world market. Inflation is likely to grow by 1% this year, higher than the 0.2% last year. The Bank of Thailand is expected to maintain its interest rate policy at 1.5% throughout the year without having to cut interest rates to help stimulate economic growth. Considering these key factors, we are looking at a 3.3% GDP growth rate this year," said Ms Vorawan.
Further, the FETCO Investor Confidence Index (ICI) for three months through August rose by 0.76% to 101.66 from 100.89 in last month’s survey.
Figures below 80 points are bearish, while anything from 80-120 points is neutral, and 120 or more points is bullish.