Bangkok Post reveals that the Thailand National Stability Board of the Military Government has approved two high-speed rail programs with a total investment topping THB 741.4 billion. The Rice-For-HSR cooperation is within sight. Opening the two rails will connect the railway systems of China and Thailand, ensuring closer future exchanges between the two. Internally, the two HSRs serve as a part for China’s connecting with the Southeast Asian railway network, which, when opened, will benefit Yunnan, Guangxi and Sichuan from border trades.

On the other side, as China masters the world leading HSR technologies, if China can participate in the HSR projects of Thailand, it will greatly reduce cost in HSR construction, which is also why Thailand welcomes the participation of China. Soithip Traisuth, Standing Secretary of the Ministry of Transport (Thailand), said the two HSRs are respectively Nong Khai Province - Map Ta Phut (total length: 737km; scheduled investment: THB 392.5 billion) and Chiang Khong - Ban Rachi (total length: 655km; scheduled investment: THB 348.8 billion). Thailand expects to reduce engineering cost per km from THB 500 - 600 million to THB 350-400 million.

Last October, Chinese Primier Li Keqiang and then Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra jointly released the Long-term Program on the Development of China-Thailand Relations during his visit to Thailand, expressing that China is interested in participating in the building of the HSR system from Nong Khai to Ban Rachi, with the agricultural products of Thailand compensating for part of the project expenses, and both sides signed the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Governments of China and Thailand on the Intergovernmental Cooperation Projects of the Railway Infrastructure Development of Thailand and the Exchange of Agricultural Products of Thailand , nicknamed as Rice-For-HSR Cooperation.