PM to preside over tsunami memorial service in Thai South

NARATHIWAT, THAILAND, December 26 (TNA) - Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha is visiting the Thai South to inspect flooded areas and the updated security situation and to also preside over a memorial service for those killed in a great tsunami disaster a decade ago. Accompanied by his working team, Prime Minister General Prayut, who is also Chief of the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO, flew from Bangkok on Friday morning to Narathiwat Province in the Thai far South to first attend a briefing on the current flooding in affected southern areas. The prime minister, who is visiting to the Thai South for the first time after taking his office in September 2014, is scheduled to later fly by a helicopter to the province's Tak Bai District to meet and boost morale of local flood victims and to present them with necessities, while also observing assistance provided by officials to the flood victims. The prime minister will then fly to Phuket International Airport and board a helicopter to a naval base in nearby Phang-nga Province on Friday evening to preside over the memorial service for locals and international tourists who were killed by the tsunami disaster on December 26, 2004. The two-day memorial service, from December 26-27, was set to be held in Phang-nga’s Takua Pa District. Thailand saw 5,395 people killed by the disastrous tsunami, about half of them were foreign holidaymakers. Prior to his departure from Bangkok, the prime minister told journalists that he will also inspect a warning system to prevent such tsunami tragedy from reoccurring in the future and will confer with the Narathiwat governor on plans by his government to set up special economic zones along border with neighbouring countries. Touching on the current flooding in several southern Thai provinces, the prime minister pointed out that impacts from the climate change and excessive use of natural resources brought rain much more than normal and he has ordered parties concerned to store water for use in the upcoming dry season after the ongoing flooding returns to normal. Conveying his concerns to neighbouring Malaysia on a similar flooding disaster, the Thai prime minister said his government will send necessities to Malaysian flood victims, as Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur have sound relations. (TNA)