City council members present a key to the
city to the visitors from Sri Lanka.
Veechan Souksi
Officials from five Sri Lankan cities became the latest public
administrators to study Pattaya in hopes of improving their management
skills at home.
Three mayors were among the group of 34 city council members and public
officials from Ampitiya, Ella, Manaragana, Patha Dumbara and Puttalan in
town March 3 to study Pattaya’s business community and economic system.
Rungnapa Thapnonghi, director of administrations for Pattaya Hospital,
chaired the meeting and explained Pattaya’s growth, its economy,
policies and population structure. During the meeting, also attended by
Pattaya City Council members, the Sri Lankans were awarded a key to the
city.
Rungnapa detailed Pattaya’s growth from a small fishing village into a
tourist destination with more than 400,000 residents and millions of
tourists. The economy has diversified into shopping, property and health
care. The growth, she said, has required added emphasis on security,
noting the city has more than 2,000 closed-circuit television cameras
installed. Health care also has matured and now serves as a reason for
tourism, she said.
The Sri Lankans were very interested in Pattaya’s yearly budget and
curious about how the city grew so rapidly. Rungnapa said that Pattaya
is provided approximately 150 billion baht yearly for economic use and
maintenance of the city.
