Ruling on Map Ta Phut 'could hurt investment'

The Rayong Administrative Court's ruling yesterday that heavily industrialised Map Ta Phut in Rayong province be designated as a pollution-control area will likely jeopardise new investment schemes as well as the tourism and agricultural industries.

"We will honour the ruling and will see how to comply with additional requirements on pollution-control measures," deputy energy permanent secretary Norkhun Sitthipong said yesterday in his capacity as chairman of PTT's board of directors.

He said the chiefs of PTT's subsidiaries, with expansion plans slated for the area, would need to submit their investment plans to PTT's board for reconsideration. One of the projects that could be affected by the ruling is the planned seventh gas-separation plant.

Supachai Watanangura, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries'  (FTI) Petrochemical Industry Club, said the ruling would definitely affect new investment. As investors are not sure about the licensing procedure with the local communities' bigger involvement, they may shift their investment to Singapore, Vietnam or Malaysia.

"Southeast Asia is a high-potential region for petrochemical investment. This ruling may drive away new investment that will resume after the crisis is over," he said.

Yesterday, the Rayong court ruled in favour of a complaint by 11 communities in Map Ta Phut, who had demanded that the National Environment Committee designate Map Ta Phut a pollution-control area.

Suthi Atchasai, a coordinator of the public network in the East, said the court's ruling would cover the municipality area of the province, Muang district and Ban Chang district.

"The court's order must be implemented within 60 days," he said. "This is the first successful step and the people's network will monitor the implementation of pollution measures and ask related agencies to review the third-phase petrochemical expansion, and consider whether development projects in the areas would increase the pollution level."

Santi Vilassakdanont, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, was more concerned about the impact on the tourism and agricultural sectors.

"Once Map Ta Phut is declared a pollution-control area, travellers may not want to go to the province. Moreover, consumers may start wondering if fruit from the province is contaminated," he said.

While suggesting that affected businesses appeal the ruling, he said the communities may be those who were not covered by the integrated pollution-control measures announced in 2007 by the Surayud Chulanont administration after consultation with the private sector and locals.

While yesterday's ruling would raise the local communities' voice, Santi anticipated that the area would as a result become less attractive for investment, which would in turn reduce the petrochemical industry's competitiveness.

"Siam Cement Group has also sought expansion in Vietnam. The ruling would make it harder for new investment, and for a while, the province itself would lose," he said, adding that it is difficult to put up a petrochemical plant in other provinces due to infrastructure constraints.

Meanwhile, Ratchada Singalavanija, director-general of the Industrial Works Department, said that as a result of the ruling, the local communities would have a bigger say in toxic-emission control and this could automatically disrupt the integrated plan announced by the Surayud government.

"In the 2009 fiscal year, government agencies are going ahead with investment in controlling pollution under the [Surayud] plan. But, now we don't know what will happen next year," he said.

Ratchada said that in 2007, when Kosit Panpiemras was deputy prime minister and industry minister and many villagers in Map Ta Phut showed symptoms of pollution-related diseases, the government had not designated Map Ta Phut as a pollution-control area. Doing so would have raised the local communities' voice and thus potentially delayed action to stem the pollution problems.

The government then opted to seek opinions from the private sector and local communities and came up with the integrated toxic-emission control plan. Under the plan, industrialists in the area promised to spend more than Bt10 billion on toxic-emission controls.

PTT Group and Siam Cement Group alone promised a combined Bt7-billion investment in environmental projects.