A draft bill governing establishment of a national holding company overseeing 12 corporatised state enterprises is expected to be submitted for cabinet approval by year-end.
The bill, which also needed endorsement from the National Legislative Assembly, will take effect in next year's second quarter, said Ekniti Nitithanprapas, director-general of the State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo).
After it takes effect, the 12 state enterprises' shares owned by the government will be transferred to the holding firm.
The Finance Ministry will own the entire stake, supervise the enterprises' policies, management and investment and take charge of board appointments.
The 12 state enterprises have combined assets of 6 trillion baht. They include PTT, Krungthai Bank, TOT, CAT Telecom, MCOT, Thai Airways International, Airports of Thailand and the State Railway of Thailand.
A working committee chaired by central bank governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul has been tasked with studying in detail the law governing the formation of the holding company, its scope and authority, the supervision of state agencies, the screening process of board members and good governance.
The draft bill is part of a bid by the State Enterprises Policy Commission or superboard to prevent political interference and ensure management transparency.
The draft will also require all state enterprises to propose their policies to the superboard for approval, with the aim of ensuring their investment plans are in line with those of the government.
Thailand has 57 state enterprises -- Sepo will supervise the 45 that are not corporatised.
In another development, Mr Ekniti said establishment of a national infrastructure fund to pool all infrastructure projects would also be submitted for cabinet approval by year-end.
It will be a fund-raising channel to alleviate the government's burden of pouring a hefty amount into infrastructure projects.
Fast-track investment projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme do not require a legal amendment, as all processes remain unchanged, Mr Ekniti said.
He said given that Sepo's representatives would participate in the PPP fast-track scheme from start to finish, the period for drawing up projects could be shortened to only nine months from almost two years now.
It normally takes 16 months to draft projects, plus another three to five months to seek approvals from the PPP board and the cabinet before taking another three to five months for drafting the terms of reference (TOR).
Under the PPP fast-track scheme, it will take only three-and-a-half months to draft projects, while Sepo will take only 15 days for consideration and forwarding projects to the PPP board and the cabinet, which will take four months to consider them.
Mr Ekniti said the TOR would be prepared while seeking cabinet approval, and this could shorten the drafting period to one-and-a-half months from a maximum of five months at present.
The cabinet on Tuesday agreed to fast-track eight investment projects under the PPP scheme.
Projects designated for next year and 2017 are worth 347 billion baht.
They are the Pink Line, Yellow Line, Blue Line (Bang Sue-Tha Phra), Bang Pa-in-Nakhon Ratchasima Motorway, Bang Yai-Kanchanaburi Motorway, a garbage disposal plant in Nonthaburi, garbage disposal facilities in Nakhon Ratchasima and a marine commerce centre.
The Transport Ministry is pushing for the cabinet to include two high-speed train routes worth 246 billion baht in the PPP fast-track scheme.
They are Bangkok-Hua Hin and Bangkok-Rayong.
Passengers board a free train service heading to the North. The State Railway of Thailand is among loss-ridden state enterprises that need to be restructured by the State Enterprises Policy Commission or superboard.