Four Provinces on the Agenda of the Upcoming Mobile Cabinet Meeting

(13/06/2012)

The upcoming mobile Cabinet meeting, to be held in Pattaya, Chon Buri, on 18-19 June 2012, will discuss and approve development projects in four provinces, namely Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi, and Trat. The meeting, the fifth of its kind under the Yingluck Shinawatra administration, will take place at the Royal Cliff Grand Hotel. Prime Minister Yingluck will begin the trip at 10:30 hr on 17 June when she is scheduled to visit the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate in Rayong. At 13.15 hr, she will proceed to the Royal Cliff Grand Hotel in Chon Bur to chair a workshop on tourism. At 10.00 hr on 18 June, she will visit the Laem Chabang Port, the main deep-sea port of Thailand, which has a high potential for development into a major gateway in Southeast Asia for goods transport by sea. In the afternoon, Then the Prime minister will proceed to inspect the Map Prachan Reservoir, which stores water for consumption and tap water production for Bang Lamung and Pattaya. At 15.00 hr the Prime Minister will chair a meeting of the Regional Joint Public/Private Sector Consultative Committee to discuss various projects for the development of eastern Thailand and budget allocations to be sought from the Cabinet to carry out these projects. After that she will hold a meeting with governors of eastern provinces. Each of the four provinces of Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi, and Trat will be provided with a fund of 100 million baht. Another 100 million baht will be allocated for this group of provinces, which will receive 25 million baht each. This means that a budget of 125 million baht will be approved for each province. Since the four provinces are among tourism destinations in the East, the mobile Cabinet meeting this time will look into the local tourism industry and the connection of Laem Chabang in Chon Buri with the Map Ta Phut industrial estate in Rayong and the Dawei deep-sea port and industrial estate in Myanmar. Projects to be proposed by Chon Buri will focus on tourism development and infrastructure development, such as road improvement, logistics, and goods transport, as well as the development of the Map Prachan Reservoir and the expansion of waterworks. Rayong will propose to the Cabinet projects concerning infrastructure and tourism development, flood prevention, road improvement, the building of coral reefs, and the solving of water shortages. Chanthaburi will seek budget allocations for road construction, eco-tourism development, and the building of cold storage for fruit. It will also propose that a one-stop-service center be set up at the Ban Laem permanent border checkpoint to accommodate increasing cross-border trade and more tourists, in preparation for the ASEAN Community in 2015. As for Trat, its projects are mainly involved with tourism safety, the improvement of the Trat airport, the planting of cash crops to ease falling fruit prices, and small water source development.