Tak and Songkhla will be the next provinces with government-developed special economic zones (SEZs) after the one in Sa Kaeo is finished.
The SEZ in Songkhla's Sadao district has been designated for rubber processing, while the one in Tak’s Mae Sot district will be for agricultural processing, Treasury Department director-general Chakkrit Parapuntakul said yesterday.
He was speaking after signing a contract to rent state land in Sa Kaeo to the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) for SEZ development.
The government decided two years ago to set up industrial estates in SEZs in 10 provinces.
Half of them were designated for the first phase — Tak, Sa Kaeo, Trat, Mukdahan and Songkhla. For the second phase, Chiang Rai, Kanchanaburi, Narathiwat, Nakhon Phanom and Nong Khai were named.
However, the one in Nong Khai is being funded largely by the private sector, and development has already started.
The Treasury Department is offering a 30% discount on rental rates for state land earmarked for SEZs — 32,000 baht per rai per year for state land in Sa Kaeo, 40,000 baht for Songkhla, 36,000 baht for Tak and 24,000 baht for Mukdahan.
IEAT governor Veerapong Chaiperm said construction of the SEZ in Sa Kaeo could be finished next year if there was strong demand.
Five or six operators have expressed interest in renting areas in Sa Kaeo's SEZ, and the IEAT will rent to tenants at 160,000 baht per rai per year, he said.
Sa Kaeo's SEZ is meant to serve logistics, in line with the planned Southern Economic Corridor, which will link Thailand to Cambodia and Vietnam via Aranyaprathet district.
The IEAT will offer 50-year leases to tenants in Sa Kaeo's industrial estate, which will cover 660 rai and cost 1.2 to 1.5 million baht a rai to develop.
Mr Veerapong expects the Sa Kaeo estate will attract 5 billion baht worth of investment from the private sector, and operations in the industrial estate are expected to generate annual revenue of 4 billion for the tenants.