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Amornrat Mahitthirook

The Transport Ministry plans to invite electric train producers worldwide to build train assembly plants here to meet increasing demand for locomotives for the government's rail development projects.

The idea was raised yesterday by Transport Minister Santi Prompat after meeting with a representative of the Japanese embassy to discuss Bangkok's subway extension projects.

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation has already agreed to provide soft loans to finance the 23 km Purple Line from Bang Yai to Bang Sue.

Japan yesterday said it was also ready to give technological assistance to the government, which has announced a 700-billion-baht plan for nine mass transit lines, covering 300 km in greater Bangkok.

"I took this opportunity to invite Japan to set up factories here," Mr Santi told reporters after the meeting.

Producers in other countries were also welcome, he said, if they were interested in the government's megaprojects, which require a large number of trains and hundreds of kilometres of track.

The idea to build factories would help Thailand save time and costs in case trains need repairs, he said.

In the past, the transport minister said, the country needed to send problem trains abroad, wasting both time and money.

A source at the Transport Ministry said Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who chairs the railways and mass transit development committee, recently told officials to study possible options to build the factories in Thailand.

"His idea is to pave the way for Thailand to be the production base of the region," the source said.