Saha Group, Thailand’s leading consumer product conglomerate, has scrapped plans to set up an industrial estate in Burma, citing high land prices in the neighbouring country.

Chairman Boonsithi Chokwatana said the group decided not to develop its own industrial park on a 1,000-rai plot in Burma after studying the project’s potential for a few years.

“It won’t work to develop our own industrial park over there due to the high investment cost,” he said. “The land is very expensive.”

If the group had not cancelled the industrial park, it would have had to spend a great deal of money just to lease the land for 30 years.

Saha Group has altered its business strategy in Burma by renting some land for factories at an industrial park to be jointly developed by Japanese investors and the Burmese government.

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The group will also use existing facilities in Tak’s Mae Sot district as a trading centre for Thailand and Burma.

Mae Sot has been chosen for one of the new special economic zones.

Saha has three textiles factories on a 200-rai plot in Mae Sot for making lingerie, apparel and socks.

 

This article was originally published in the Bangkok Post on 9 June 2015.