Thai government to centralize state enterprise supervision

BANGKOK, January 26 (TNA) - Government authorities have agreed to centralize state enterprise supervision and endorsed the establishment of a superholding company to hold shares in state enterprises in place of the Ministry of Finance. Kulis Sombatsiri, Director-General of the State Enterprise Policy Office, told journalists on Monday that the decisions were made at the State Enterprise Policy Commission meeting, held at Bangkok's Government House and chaired by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha earlier in the day. Kulis elaborated that the meeting approved the Statement of Direction to centralize Thai state enterprise supervision, while endorsing the establishment of a superholding company to hold shares in state enterprises in lieu of the Ministry of Finance. Besides, the meeting approved a plan to solve the problems of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT), under which the Ministry of Transport is assigned to form a railway department to supervise all railway organizations. To solve the SRT's over 100-billion-baht debts, the senior official revealed, the meeting resolved that SRT transfer its assets, worth over 80 billion baht, to the Ministry of Finance for profitable management. According to the senior official, the meeting also approved a plan to solve the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA)'s problems, while also giving the green light to raise salaries of employees at 35 state enterprises by 6.5 per cent on average to match the daily minimum wage rate of 300 baht. (TNA)