In 2015 the military government decided to complement the bridge with a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). As one of ten provincial SEZs declared in that year, the Nakhon Phanom SEZ is part of a grand plan to lure capital investment into Thailand’s faltering economy with the promise of cheap labour, regional connectivity, and lengthy tax holidays. Now at the center of a legal dispute over land rights between Ms. Simala’s community and the government, the SEZ is splitting the village once again.

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