Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Eastern Economic Corridor or the EEC here in Thailand and long story short, what is the EEC? Well the EEC as we have discussed in some other videos is basically three provinces, Rayong, Chonburi and Chachoengsao down in the Eastern sort of Southeastern if you want to call that South, Thailand does go further South but it is kind of the southern part of the Eastern side of the country, this Eastern Corridor is basically being, for a variety of different reasons, it is becoming a major business hub here in Thailand. There is also enabling legislation which has been promulgated which allows for certain concessions and benefits not dissimilar from the Board of Investment or BOI here in Thailand wherein folks who are doing business within the geographical confines of the EEC may be able to gain some serious benefit.

Now that said, the reason for the video, I was reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya is changing fast but Walking Street is safe for now. There is a lot of information in that article. I urge those who are watching this video go check out that article in detail. I am going to read just a tiny excerpt out of this that I thought was kind of interesting. Quoting directly: "It has long been rumoured that there is an EEC plan to knock down Walking Street and replace it by a family-friendly recreational centre and Business Park." Well "best laid plans of mice and men" as they say. Even if there is a plan I am not sure I have ever seen a plan out there where the EEC specifically says "we are looking to take Walking Street and turn it into something totally different." The EEC can't just go down to Pattaya and just start unilaterally changing things associated with the city and the zoning and people's private property depending on the circumstances. So I don't think it is overly likely that the EEC is going to go ahead and do that.

But it does bring up a good point and the article brought up a good point. Yeah Pattaya is changing fast. The Economic Corridor is rapidly changing and I think it will change the complexion of Pattaya quite quickly actually because there is just going to be so much innovation and so much business activity coming in, all in a relatively compressed period of time that we are going to see such situation wherein yeah it is going to have a major impact on the demography, just how everything works in that area and this may be one of them. We may see a sort of gentrification of Pattaya as the rest of this decade plays out. Now again that is certainly to some extent speculation, but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation progresses.