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Thailand: SEZ lease bids aim to reap over B6bn
The Treasury Department is expected to fetch at least 6 billion baht for the government’s coffers from auctions of state land to be developed into special economic zones (SEZ) in Tak, Nakhon Phanom and Kanchanaburi provinces under 50-year lease contracts.
Some 1,055 rai of state land located in Sailuad sub-district of Tak’s Mae Sot district is the most promising plot because of border trade between Thailand and Myanmar, said Preecha Mongkolhutthi, an adviser for real estate development to the department.
Another two plots, covering 1,363 rai in Nakhon Phanom province and 2,979 rai in Kanchanaburi province, have the potential to be developed as logistics projects, he said.
Under the 50-year leases, participants are required to propose at least 36,000 baht per rai per year as a rental fee and 250,000 baht per rai in facilitation fees for state land in Tak province; 8,400 baht per rai per year as a rental fee plus 140,000 baht a rai in facilitation fees for land in Nakhon Phanom; and 1,200 baht per rai per year as a rental fee plus 20,000 baht in facilitation fees for land in Kanchanaburi.
Interested participants must be juristic entities with Thai nationality and have registered capital of at least 50 million baht. In the case of joint venture firms, they must have minimum registered capital of 50 million baht and at least three years of project development experience.
To encourage winning bidders to accelerate construction, the rental fee will be waived for the first two years if bidders spend at least 10% of the investment cost excluding land value and working capital in the first or second year.
Interested investors can buy bid envelopes from Jan 15 to Feb 9 and must submit their bids by May 15. The Treasury Department will take 30 days to consider the proposals.
The government decided a few years ago to set up industrial estates in SEZs in 10 provinces, focusing on agriculture, industry, logistics and tourism. The 10 designated provinces are Tak, Sa Kaeo, Songkhla, Trat, Mukdahan, Chiang Rai, Kanchanaburi, Narathiwat, Nakhon Phanom and Nong Khai.
The department in February last year set lenient conditions for the bidding to develop state land into SEZs after receiving a lukewarm response from putting 2,693 rai — 718 rai in Nong Khai, 1,080 rai in Mukdahan and 895 rai in Trat — up for auction in 2016.
For the 2016 auction, Property Perfect Plc was the only company to bid on developing land in Trat province, and won the bid.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1393026/sez-lease-bids-aim-to-reap-over-b6bn