Significant progress has been made on the construction of the second Rantau Panjang-Sungai Golok Bridge across the Kolok River, connecting Rantau Panjang town in Kelantan, Malaysia, with Su-ngai Kolok town in the southern border province of Narathiwat.

Deputy Government Spokesperson Rachada Dhnadirek said that Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha was pleased with the outcome of the third Malaysia-Thailand joint technical meeting for the Rantau Panjang-Sungai Golok Bridge construction project.

The meeting took place recently in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Deputy Secretary-General of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center Chanathan Saengphum led a Thai team to join the Expert Working Group at the meeting.

Previously the Thai working team had surveyed the construction site to adjust the design of the road linking the border checkpoints of the two countries, as proposed by Malaysia. Discussions between the working teams of both sides are set to be completed within six months, starting from June 2023.

Ms. Rachada said that the Southern Border Provinces Administration Center proposed at the meeting that all related problems be solved in time with the budget planning for the 2024 fiscal year, so that the construction could be completed sooner for the benefit of Thai and Malaysian people, who have been waiting for the second bridge crossing the Su-ngai Kolok River for over 20 years.

She said that the bridge project connecting Su-ngai Kolok and Rantau Panjang would facilitate the travel of people and goods transportation between Thailand and Malaysia. It will also help boost tourism, promote cross-border trade, and connect special economic zones along the Thai-Malaysian border.

Ms. Rachada stated that the Prime Minister attached great importance to trade routes along border areas and that he believed that, through friendship and the people-to-people contact, the border situation would continue to improve, thus contributing to the joint development between Thailand and Malaysia on a sustainable basis.