Public-private sectors join forces to assist flood victims in Thai South

BANGKOK, January 10 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Commerce, has joined forces with the private sector to deliver 1,500 tons of ready-to-eat rice to flood victims in the Thai South. Permanent Secretary for Commerce Wiboonlak Ruamrak told journalists on January 9 that the National Rice Policy Committee (NRPC) has approved her ministry's cooperation with private rice exporters to deliver the 1,500 tons of ready-to-eat rice to the southern flood victims through networks of the Thai army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). Wiboonlak said the Thai Rice Exporters Association will, thus, dispatch canned ready-to-eat rice to people in flood-hardest-hit areas and additional 30,000 packs of uncooked rice, five kilograms each, will be sent to them after they can return homes for repair works. According to the senior official, the Ministry of Commerce rendered its first-round assistance to the southern flood victims last week. Meanwhile, Suttirat Rattanachot, Director-General of the Comptroller General’s Department, under the Ministry of Finance, revealed that an additional state budget of 50 million baht has been approved by the Ministry of Finance to assist flood victims and inundated areas in the Thai South, as the previously-approved budget of 50 million baht has been almost spent out. Suttirat noted that the decision was based on the possibility that frequent downpours would continue in the southern Thai region until mid-January and eight flood-hit provinces had requested for emergency assistance. Besides, the Ministry of Finance has allowed governors of flood-ravaged provinces to seek more state budgets to procure vehicles to deliver necessities to their affected people. (TNA)