Khon Kaen is in the Northeast region of Thailand, and it is  the commerce and political center of Northeastern Thailand. It is well known for the silk that is manufactured in the area. Khon Kaen is the home of tennis sensation Khun Paradorn Srichaphan.  The province is also home of Thailand''''s First Olympic Gold Medallist, the 1996 bantam weight Khun Somluck Kamsing. Located in the heart of northeast region of Thailand (Isaan), this community was experiencing one of the fastest growth rates in Thailand until the baht was devalued in 1997. In the last several years, construction has restarted within the city, including the widening of Mitaprahp Road on the West side of Khon Kaen (Highway 2 Bangkok-Nong Khai). The present population of the city is around 150,000. The government had endorsed Khon Kaen as the export center for trade into the Indo-China Region, but politics may play a role in preventing this. Laos and Vietnam have located consulate offices in the city to process visa applications. The city also hosts the largest university in the North East, Khon Kaen University.

Big Thing are about to happen here

The Future Importance of the East West Corridor        

        With the opening of the bridge over the Mekong at Muhkdaharn in 2007, Thailand completed it initial stage of the evolving super highway that will eventually run from Da Nang in Vietnam to port city south of Yangon in Myanmar. This road will be known as the East-West Corridor and is a major part of the infrastructure development program by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). After the 1997 currency crisis ASEAN planners realized that inter Asian trade was potentially more important than trade by any one ASEAN member with USA, Japan, Europe or China, but that this potential was significantly handicapped by lack of infrastructure within the region. So efforts are being undertaken to improve ports, highways and rail systems. The standard gauge rail width was adopted by all 10 ASEAN countries and a new line will eventually run from China down the Vietnamese efast coast with major links across Cambodia into Khon Kaen in the center and into Bangkok in the upper south.
        Already Vietnam is almost finished their section of the East-West Corridor and Cambodia is well advanced. Within 3 years a journey from Khon Kaen to Da Nang, which today takes 12 hours, will only take 8 hours. Eventually that trip will be possible in 5 – 6 hours as compared to the time required to go from Khon Kaen to Bangkok  of 4 -5 hours today.
        The 3 major Thai cities along the new froute are Muhkdaharn, Khon Kaen and Pisanulok. The planners have specified that Muhkdaharn shall be developed as an infternational trading port, Khon Kaen as the administrative and logistical center and Pisanulok with assume the role as the Agricultural distribution center. Khon Kaen’s importance flows from it being the geographic center of South East Asia. It is the point where the East-West Corridor crosses the existing super highway that runs from Singapore in the South to Vientienne at Laos in the North. Within the next 5 years this highway will be extended into Yunnan China to give access to China’s central western region.
        The planner realize that the 2 most populated countries in world and the same 2 whose level of trade is increasing the most, India and China, can not access each other’s markets directly because of the Himalayan mountain barrier. So their trade must for the next 150 years travel down these important highways to Khon Kaen. From there the goods can be diverted to all South East Asia as well as the Pacific and Indian Ocean countries.
 

  Dr. John Nigel-brownlee, the Managing Director of Lexens (Thailand) Co., Ltd., has been lecturing on the strategic importance of these developments at universities in Khon Kaen and in Bangkok for the past 10 years. His estimates are that the city of Khon Kaen will within the next 20 year increase from the current 350,000 people to 750,000 people. This, he advises, will require major investments in power, water, sewerage and transportation. There will be an increasing demand for construction labor and for service support. New industries – especially logistic management, transportation, container handling and all such related industries will evolve. As the population increases hotel and accommodation and support services such as hospital restaurants and entertainment must increase.  Land values will rise, farmers will sell small uneconomical holdings and come into town where work will be readily available, and there will be a major influx of Indians and Chinese merchants who move to Khon Kaen in order to look after this end of the new trade routes.
        Since English is the universal business language common to both the Indians and the Chinese, those firms or employees who have mastered that language will be well positioned to benefit from these changes. Companies who have built partnership or joint venture relationships with foreign entities will have access to the capital and staff that will be required to exploit the opportunities that these changes will bring.
        Dr John warns that the businesses which fail to anticipate the many changes he foresees will not survive, as their competitors will be able to dominate their markets and exploit the opportunities that are to occur. 
        In Pisanulok changes in the areas of green house management, irrigation distribution, organic framing and flowers, fresh fruit and vegetables and perishable produce distribution will undergo massive changes. Each activity will be capital intensive. So he warns that firms should be preparing now if they intend to benefit from such opportunities and avoid such risks. 
 
 

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& Contact Dr. John Nigel-brownlee