Ban Pong Community Hall

Ban Pong is a district of Ratchaburi Province, Thailand. It is in the northeast of the province. Mon people settled in the Ban Pong area about four centuries ago. The Mon communities have maintained some of their traditions and have built their own Buddhist temples. Later the town attracted numerous Chinese immigrants. Also many Lao Wiang communities settled in the Nong Kop sub-district of rural Ban Pong. During the Japanese-directed construction of the Burma Railway in World War II Ban Pong was the site of one of the Japanese POW camps, Nong Pladuk, where numerous British and Allied troops were held. Two great fires occurred in Ban Pong, razing the town centre: one in 1936 and the other in 1954. The town was rebuilt in the square-grid design then fashionable, with a fountain to the south and a clock tower to the north.

As a result of high investment and fast economic development in the past decades, The town stands as one with the highest GDP per capita in western Thailand, well above national average. It is also experiencing de-industrialisation of labour-intensive industries such as canning and sugar refining. There is a large abandoned canning factory in Ban Pong town. The town is now experiencing a boom in more highly skilled industries such as auto parts, petrochemical, and food industries, with more than 70 percent of Thai buses and coaches manufactured in Ban Pong. There is the biggest paper making complex in Thailand north of the town. As of June 2014, the National Statistics Bureau reported Ban Pong's annual GDP per capita (nominal) at US$9,623 and its annual GDP per capita (PPP) at US$24,000 compared with Thailand's US$5,675 and US$14,136 respectively. [Source: Wiki]

Ayutthaya Historical Research