"Eco-towns" project a step closer to reality

       The Industry Ministry plans to allocate more than Bt100 million to move its "eco-town" project to the next stage, with Map Ta Phut as a pilot location.
       The project was initiated to encourage manufacturers to reduce toxic emissions and turn industrial waste into energy or value-added materials.
       Plants located in an industrial estate, including Map Ta Phut, will plan together and create a supply chain to reprocess their waste as raw materials for one another.
       This project was launched in 2007 to promote green industry. Two industrial estates will be developed as eco-towns by 2012 and eight more by 2017.
       Federation of Thai Industries vice chairman Payungsak Chartsutipol yesterday said the Industry Ministry would report the project's progress to the public-private partnership meeting next Wednesday.
       "This is an important and creative development project, because it will help ease local communities' |environmental concerns and add more value to industrial waste," he said.
       Starting with Map Ta Phut, the ministry plans to expand this project to all industrial estates in the country, as well as create a cluster of eco-towns, particularly for small and medium-sized manufacturers, on an industrial estate in Ayutthaya or Samut Sakhon province.
       "The amount of waste from each small and medium-sized plant is sometimes not worth transforming into renewable energy or insufficient to sell as a raw material to other plants.
       The eco-town will be another solution for them," he said.
       The plants in areas designated as an eco-town will be forced to release less waste and emit less pollution than required by law or regulations and to shift to using more recycled and reused materials.
       The Board of Investment will consider additional tax incentives to attract manufacturers to join this project, he added.
       Yesterday, the Industrial Promotion Department signed an agreement with the Japan External Trade Organisation to launch a "Japan Desk" in a bid to tighten trade and investment ties between local and Japanese manufacturers.
       The three-year project will focus on the transfer of knowledge and technology and will develop Thai goods to meet the demands of the Japanese market, said Industry Minister Charnchai Chairungrueng.
       The Japan Desk will also act as a consultant for Japanese operators who would like to expand and invest here.