Abstract:
The Kra Canal Project has long been a controversial topic in Thailand for the last 300 years. This visionary project was named after the Kra Isthmus, the narrowest land strip in Thailand, where a canal would be dug to provide a maritime waterway between the Pacific and the Indian Oceans. Unfortunately, political, economic, social, and environmental controversies surrounding this project ignited endless debates resulting in its long delay. In 2002, the government of Prime Minister Taksin Shinnawatra proposed a new canal route (9A) cutting across Krabi, Trang, Pattalung, and Nakhon Sri Thammarat. Like its predecessor, the new project, known as the Thai Canal Project, stimulates manifold discussions and motivates multifarious researches. This thesis provides an analysis of the anticipated impacts of the Thai Canal on regional industries and labor migration in the four provinces. The results of the input-output table (26 by 26 sectors) indicate that economic growth would simultaneously occur in both light and heavy industrial sectors after the construction of the canal. The light industries that should be promoted would be those based on abundant local resources such as agricultural products. The heavy industries that should be promoted would be those based on passing cargo such as crude oil. After taking the production returns from both the industrial and agricultural sectors and the canal fee into consideration, the economic break-even point would occur in 49 years-9 years earlier than the financial break-even point, which excludes the two types of production returns. Although the emergence of the new economic zone would increase labor demand in the four provinces, the elasticity of labor migration of these provinces between 1995 and 2001 suggests that this demand would be fulfilled by labors from other parts of the country or from abroad rather than from within the region.