Thai PM Srettha confident US$28b land bridge will be built, but project faces many hurdles

[BANGKOK] WHEN Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin visited San Francisco recently for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, he had other plans on his agenda too.

Known by his peers as a top salesman, the 61-year-old former property tycoon spent time in the US to make a business pitch to a group of deep-pocketed investors in the form of a 100-km land bridge.

This massive US$28 billion infrastructure project would see a bridge built between the Indian and Pacific Oceans that would open up an alternative route to the Strait of Malacca, and give ocean liners options other than the likes of Singapore and Malaysia.