10 EASTERN ECONOMIC CORRIDOR
WHA Group support for EEC and Thailand 4.0 at full throttle Paul Dumont
Initiated in 2003 by a group of forwardthinking entrepreneurs involved in industrial proper ty development, WHA Group is Thailand’s leader in fully integrated logistics and industrial facilities solutions. Led by Ms. Jareeporn Jarukornsakul, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Group CEO, the WHA Group has accompanied the establishment and growth of hundreds of Thailand-based local and foreign businesses. Listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) since 2012, WHA Group consists of four business hubs in Logistics, Industrial Development, Utilities and Power, and Digital Platform. Since its inception, WHA Group has always been a strong supporter of the Government of Thailand’s national policies to foster economic growth. In the early 2000s, it played an instrumental role in forming the Eastern S eab o ar d’s in du s tr i a l cl u s t e r s i n t h e automotive, electronics and petrochemical sectors. With more than 1,180 customers, representing an estimated total investment of approximately US$ 33.2 billion, WHA’s services continue to evolve to suit customers’ diversifying needs.
Today, it is a key player in the Governmentsponsored Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) initiative, which aims to promote the targeted hi-tech industries, including nextgeneration automotives, smar t electronics, medical and wellness tourism, agriculture and biotechnology and food for the future (s-curve industries), plus automation and robotics, medical hub, aviation and logistics, biofuel and biochemical, and digital economy (New S-Curve industries). In many ways, the activities of WHA’s four business hubs are aligned with the EEC objectives. These activities include the following: • WHA Logistics is currently developing several strategic par tnerships with major conglomerates and industry leaders such as Dräxlmaier, Tops Mar ket, Central Restaurants Group (CRG) and JD Central; This year alone, in addition to WHA’s four existing Logistics Parks in the EEC, the group will add new e-commerce centres, representing a surface area of approximately 200,000 m2; • WHA Industrial Development: Out of WHA’s 10+ industrial estates currently in operation in Thailand, nine have been approved as EEC promotional industrial 1
UPDATE 1/2020
zones, representing 48,627 rai (7,780 hectares), with more than 10,000 rai (1,600 hectares) of sellable land; • WHA Utilities & Power (WHAUP), listed on the SET since April 2017, provides its EEC-based customers with more than 105 million m3 of water utility production and treatment capacity. Together with partners such as B Grimm, Glow Energy and Gulf, it supplies more than 2,600 MW of electricity, including solar rooftop projects and the Chonburi Clean Energy (CCE) waste-to energy power plant;1 • WHA Digital Platform has four data centres in operation, including a joint venture with Supernap Thailand, the only Tier IV Data Centre in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Australia), located in WHA Chonburi Industrial Estate 2 (WHA CIE 2). In alignment with the EEC’s goals and strategies for transforming the country into an innovation-driven economy, WHA Group offers an investment-friendly environment. It places significant emphasis on businesses that incorporate creativity, research and development, and more green technologies. For example, the EEC is now home to Chonburi Clean Energy (CCE), the first
CCE’s three shareholders are WHAUP, Glow Energy and Suez.
