Kra Canal .

Thailand seems to be the next major flashpoint in the region due to their ambitious plans to build the third man made canal in the world after Suez,Panama.The plan to build a man made canal across the thai peninsular were first put foward back in the early 18 century by the the Thai monarch.If all of the studies conducted now gives a very promising prospect,the actuall construction will take place in 2005.Funding has always been a problems and it is estimated that the whole project would cost app.few billion dollars.Malaysian PM has suggest that once the project is a go,most of the northern states(Malaysian) has to reshape their economy in order to cope with the changes.According to sources the canal would cater for oil tankers presently plying the Straits of Malacca and by using the proposed canal they could save at least 5 days.I personally thinks that such project could not bring major profit to the Thai govt,simply cause of the amount of money involved.Most likely thailand will have to borrow the cash from an international financers and these guys would not want to wait for 100 years to get back their investment profits.As a result of this a high charges could be imposed on the vessels using the canal in order to get back the money ASAP.Singapore will be the most hard hit economy if the project is a go.It is likely the lion city will try their best to influenced major financers not to support the Kra Canal.For the record after the Asian economic crisis most of Asian nations(Thailand,Indonesia,Philippine,S.Korea etc)took a bitter pill medicine from IMF in order to secured a huge bail out plans.Thailand still has app.US$100+B in foreign debts unpaid.Malaysia and Singapore is the only SEA nations which did not took the IMF bail out plan.
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