Thai PM: Most rubber farmers satisfied with offering price

BANGKOK, September 7 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says that the majority of protesting rubber growers are satisfied with the government’s guaranteed price at 90 baht per kilogramme for rubber sheet. Yingluck, who is also Defence Minister, told the public during her TV and radio weekly programme on Saturday morning that talks will be soon held with provincial governors and rubber growers' representatives to ensure that the agreed guaranteed rubber price is implemented, while concerned officials will help solve the rubber pricing problem on the long-term basis. But rubber growers in southern provinces have vowed that they will hold a new demonstration on September 14 to pressure the government to guarantee the rubber price at 95 baht per kilogramme instead, after temporarily calling off their two-week mass rally on Friday with a blockage of part of a railway and main roads. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong insisted during the prime minister's weekly programme that agencies concerned will speed up procedures needed for the launch of the rubber price guarantee scheme within 10 days after Friday's latest round of talks with rubber farmers' representatives in Nakhon Si Thammarat province in the Thai South. (TNA)