RAYONG, Thailand -- Graduates of Stanford University set up companies like Apple Inc., Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard and Yahoo, helping transform Californian orchards into Silicon Valley, the incubating environment for so many household names in technology.
PTT, Thailand's largest energy conglomerate, wants to create something similar in Wang Chan, a picturesque district in Rayong province along Thailand's eastern seaboard, where fruit farms and rubber plantations spread among rocky outcrops. The oil and gas company is investing some 6 billion baht ($180 million) to build an academic park in this area, which it calls Wang Chan Valley, and plans to nurture a new generation of national scientists.
