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Bed sheet Nikkei Asian Review On October 29, it was reported that Thai and Chinese officials signed an agreement to build a high-speed railway in Thailand, part of China’s Belt and Road initiative.
This 50.6 billion baht (37.580 billion) high-speed railway is part of a 253 km high-speed railway that connects the capital Bangkok with the province of Nakhon Ratchasima in northeast Thailand.
The contract included the Thai Railway Company and two Chinese state-owned companies, China State Railway Corporation (CR) and China Railway Development Company.
The negotiation process lasted more than 1 year regarding the cost and the currency of which country to write in the contract. The two parties reached an agreement on many issues in May, but the signing was delayed in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The two sides plan to complete the first part by 2026. A Thai government spokesman said the signed contract includes technical cooperation and worker training.
Speaking at the signing ceremony on October 28, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha expressed his hope that the railway line will strengthen relations with China and promote economic prosperity, connecting traffic.
Other expansion plans will include a high-speed rail line from Bangkok to Nong Khai province, which borders the border with Laos. China wants the former railway to form a trans-Asian railway network that will connect the city of Kunming in China with Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
In Thailand, construction started in December 2017 on a 3.5 km railway from Nakhon Ratchasima.
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