Government builds cheap houses, senior complex projects for Thais

PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN, THAILAND, September 18 (TNA) - The Thai government plans to build houses with more reasonable prices than the market prices for low and middle-income people, as well as to develop senior complex projects for the elderly. While telling journalists of the Thai government's initiatives, Patchara Anuntasilpa, Director-General of the Department of Treasury, under the Ministry of Finance, said that his department will, thus, first launch the housing project in 20 provinces for the middle-income people either in October 2017 or in early 2018. Patchara revealed that the housing project will be the cooperation between his department and the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), under which FTI will provide construction materials with specially-discounted prices so that a unit of the houses under the project should be sold to middle income people at about 500,000 baht or less than one million baht, with the installment rate of a few thousands of baht. According to the senior official, the National Housing Authority (NHA) will, on the other hand, build more cheap houses for low income people and develop senior complex projects for the elderly. For the first senior complex project, the senior official noted that it will be launched in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, where the elderly aged 55 years old and older, including government officials, the general public are welcome, along with foreigners who will be allowed to reside in the project no higher than 49 per cent of the total number of the senior residents there. Besides, owners of hospitals are particularly invited to invest in developing the senior complex project, with medical facilities and services, namely community clinics, to be linked with their hospitals and serving the general public in its neighborhoods as well. (TNA)