Thai Cabinet meeting on "Koh Samui"

SURAT THANI, October 22 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra Monday chaired the Cabinet's mobile meeting on Samui Island, or Koh Samui, in Surat Thani province in the Thai South, a political stronghold of the main opposition Democrat Party, amid strict security measures. Several agencies proposed development projects for the Thai South before the Cabinet meeting, namely the Transport Ministry's seeking over 9.4 billion baht to improve road networks in Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung provinces, as well as seaside roads facing the Gulf of Thailand for tourism and roads linking the coastline along the Gulf of Thailand with those facing the Andaman Sea. Prior to the Cabinet's formal meeting, Yingluck met both her administration's supporters and complainants, and, when arriving at the International School of Tourism, Suratthani Rajabhat University, the venue of the Cabinet meeting, Yingluck received a letter from local activists who asked her government to revive a proposed plan on the construction of an international convention center in Phuket, after the Cabinet scrapped the project in its meeting on October 2. Meanwhile, Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Natthawut Saikua told reporters that the Thai Cabinet received warm welcome from local people, ensuring that the Pheu Thai Party-led government treated people of all Thai regions equally. Natthawut pointed out that frequent visits of the prime minister to the Thai South would lead to tourism development in the region, and that southern provinces facing the Gulf of Thailand have potential for industrial and tourism development. (TNA)