Thai general's US$83b plan to clean up border town Mae Sot

Sydney

FOR much of the past century, the Thai border town of Mae Sot stood on one of Asia's wilder frontiers. On the opposite bank of the swirling, mud-brown Moei River in neighbouring Myanmar, Karen insurgents waged a seemingly endless independence war. Smugglers trafficked guns, opium, timber, and gemstones. Then there was the two-way human cargo during the past three decades: 120,000 battle-scarred refugees seeking sanctuary in Thailand, battle-hardened mercenaries heading in the opposite direction.

In this unlikely outpost - and others like it along Thailand's 5,673 kilometres of borders - Prayuth Chan-Ocha, the general who runs Bangkok's ruling military junta, is making a big bet: that he can turn former war zones into some of South-east Asia's most prosperous marketplaces. He's doing it by creating 10 special economic zones that offer tax breaks and other incentives to investors venturing into now-peaceful border areas close to fast-growing Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.