Thai PM to introduce solutions to falling rubber prices

BANGKOK, January 11 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha will present holistic solutions to the problem of falling rubber prices to the Cabinet. The prime minister told journalists on Monday that he will present the solutions to the Cabinet at its weeking meeting on January 12. The prime minister stressed that the solutions to the low rubber prices are aimed to tackle relevant issues throughout the natural rubber process, including the purchase of rubber to feed production, rubber processing and the purchase of processed products. The prime minister said he has ordered concerned ministries to buy processed rubber products to maximize the domestic consumption of natural rubber. The prime minister will reportedly elaborate the solutions at Tuesday's weekly Cabinet meeting, involving his government's spending of a huge budget. Meanwhile, police are securing a rubber market in Hat Yai of Songkhla Province in the Thai South, as rubber growers plan to rally there on January 12 to demand solutions to the low rubber prices from the government. Katbundit Rammak, a leader of rubber growers in Songkhla, told reporters that rubber growers are really in trouble and their planned rally is free from politics. Police Lieutenant General Weerapong Chuenphakdee, Chief of the Provincial Police Region 9, who supervises the southern Thai region, reported that rubber farmers of Songkhla and Trang Provinces plan to join Tuesday's rally, while Colonel Somkiat Ratanacharoenphornchai, Deputy Director of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) in the southern Surat Thani Province, convened leaders of local rubber growers on Monday to gather the farmers' demands and try to convince them not to pressure the government at the moment. (TNA)