Thai Cabinet approves Bt517m budget for southern development

SURAT THANI, THAILAND, October 22 (TNA) - The Cabinet has approved a state budget of 517 million baht to fund 27 development projects in four southern Thai provinces facing the Gulf of Thailand, including Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Chumphon and Phattalung. Government Spokesperson Sansanee Nakpong told a press conference that the Thai Cabinet made the decision on Monday at its mobile meeting on Samui Island, or Koh Samui, in the southern resort Surat Thani province. Sansanee said that the 27 projects could be implemented right away, including those on the development of networks of logistic systems and tourist destinations, covering Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Koh Pha-ngan and the Ang Thong Islands, run by the Ministry of Transport. Besides, there are projects to build a product distribution center in the southern Nakhon Si Thammarat province's Thung Song District and a project to improve roads, including a road parallel to the Chumphon-Phatthalung section of the Asian Highway No. 41. The Cabinet also approved flood prevention projects in economic areas of the four southern provinces facing the Gulf of Thailand and a project to install an underwater electricity cable from the mainland to Koh Pha-ngan to supply more power to local people. The government spokeswoman revealed that Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra also assigned Deputy Prime Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapa to visit the violence-plagued Thai far South on Tuesday to get first-hand information and to follow up the updated situation, saying that the prime minister has praised security officers for their devotion in the troubled deep South. Meanwhile, Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri told reporters that the Thai Cabinet also approved his ministry's 50-million-baht project to build Koh Tao Hospital in Surat Thani over the next one year to improve medical services and to treat international tourists more effectively. According to the public health minister, the prime minister is scheduled to convene a meeting on October 25 to discuss the recruitment of more doctors and nurses, acknowledging that his ministry has already studied the number of medical personnel Thailand needs to cope with the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. (TNA)