Situated in the midst of South East Asia and Greater Mekong Sub-region, Thailand has claimed herself as a fast-growing trading centre and a potential gateway which significantly contributes to both regional and national development. With her boundary adjacent to the sea, approximately 90% of her international trade volume relies on maritime transport, a certain part of which is efficiently served by her national merchant fleet. Despite the modest size, the fleet has gradually increased to 354 vessels with a total carrying capacity of 3,708,687 DWT in 2006. By the same year, the number of Thai seafarers also reached 10,345 persons, 5,381 of which are officers and 4,964 are ratings.
           

      Presently, Thailand's international maritime trade has almostreached 200 million tons, approximately 25% of which are transported through two major ports, namely, Bangkok Port in the central of the City of Bangkok and Laem Chabang Port on the coast of eastern region. Being the largest port in Thailand in terms of container throughput and well connected with extensive road and rail networks, Laem Chabang has enjoyed its strategic location as a logistics hub and gateway toIndo-China, in particular, to meet the trade demand of ASEAN-China FTA. Having a capability of accommodating Super Post Panamax vessels, the port handles over 70% of total container throughput of the country with sophisticated technology and superb facilities. The port has recently been ranked among the world top container ports with the most fast-growing cargo throughput by some leading shipping magazines. To cope with the ever increasing cargo t hroughput, the port has been undertaking the port expansion project (Phase 3) which, at its completion, will increase its capacity to approximately 15 million TEUs per year. All efforts have been taken to upgrade its performance with the aim of achieving a World Class Port in the near future. (www.port.co.th)