BUSINESS IN… Bangkok


From left: Iconsiam site location; BTS Skytrain; Suvarnabhumi International


community group in the Bang Rak and Khlong San [areas] that adjoin Yannawa district. There’s a steering committee leading the establishment of a creative district and in the middle will be the Thailand Creative and Design Centre. The group includes the BMA [Bangkok Metropolitan Administration], Thammasat University, hotels, the art community, architects and small businesses, [all] looking at how we can support this area, attract the right businesses, preserve the right buildings and improve the environment – and we think this will start to have an effect on how people view the area.”


TRANSPORT TROUBLES So the riverside renaissance has begun, but how successful these plans are and how many visitors will come to stay, shop and even invest may largely depend upon practical solutions to long- standing infrastructure problems.


48 NOVEMBER 2015


Logistically, the city’s airport facilities are inhibiting Bangkok’s growth. This is no small problem considering the Tourism Authority of Thailand forecasts 28.8 million visitors this year, spending an estimated 1.4 trillion baht (US$40 billion). Throughput at the airports is more than double that number when transit passengers are included. The government has announced an upgrade of Suvarnabhumi international airport – which is already operating well in excess of its design capacity of 45 million passengers a year – to include a third runway and two new terminals. With the runway currently undergoing an environmental health assessment and one of the terminals awaiting government approval, timeframes on completion are sketchy at best. Don Mueang, Bangkok’s low-cost carrier airport and the nation’s second-largest hub, has a capacity of 18.5 million but is


also expected to have its Terminal 2 and other facilities upgraded. Combined, the two airports will cope with 120 million passengers a year by 2021, according to Airports of Thailand, with capacities of 90 million and 30 million respectively. Another issue for the city is the headache of getting around. Bangkok traffic has been notorious for decades, and although much improved by mass transport initiatives, getting from A to B on the city’s roads can still take hours. The government’s transport


plan, which includes the airport revamps, is in essence patched together from the blueprints of the previous democratically elected governments, and includes an important upgrade for the Airport Rail Link network. This is all part of an eight-year, US$90 billion infrastructure investment strategy for 2015-2022 announced last October. The mass transit railway system for the city and vicinity will be


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