Thai cabinet approves infrastructure fund plan

BANGKOK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Thai economic ministers approved on Wednesday a plan to set up a fund to raise money from investors for state enterprises to finance infrastructure projects.

The infrastructure fund could initially raise about 27 billion baht ($808 million), Kulit Sombatsiri, deputy general director of the finance ministry's State Enterprise Policy Office, said in a statement.

The fund might be started by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and Expressway Authority of Thailand, given their assets and potential, he said.

Details of the fund, part of a five-year capital market development plan, would be decided by the ministry and state enterprises involved and then submitted to the cabinet again by the first quarter of 2010, he said.

The market development plan to 2013, also approved by the cabinet on Wednesday, includes the listing of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) in the third quarter of 2011 and the launch of ASEAN Exchange Linkages, an electronic trading platform linking six Southeast Asian bourses. ($1=33.42 Baht) (Reporting by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Alan Raybould)