Prime Minister Yingluck
Shinawatra arrives at the Royal Cliff for her second day of meetings.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra this past week
brought the Kingdom’s 5th Mobile Cabinet Meeting and ‘retreat’ to the
Royal Cliff Grand Hotel in Pattaya, where, along with the cabinet
meeting, Yingluck chaired the 5th joint public and private sector
meeting to find solutions to economic problems in the eastern region.
During the 3-days of meetings, funds were allocated
for development projects proposed by representatives of the four
provinces of Chonburi, Rayong, Chanthaburi, and Trat.
According to a source inside the meeting, each of the
four provinces will be provided with a fund of 100 million baht. Another
100 million baht will be divided up between these 4 eastern provinces,
from which each will receive 25 million baht, totaling 125 million baht
for each province.
Projects proposed by the four provinces included the
expansion of waterworks, road construction, the development of local
stadiums, the construction of a one-stop service center to cope with
increasing cross-border trade and tourism, water management, flood
prevention, the beachfront landscape improvement, tourism safety, the
improvement of a runway, the planting of cash crops to ease falling
fruit prices, and the development of a vocational learning center.
The development of the Mabprachan Reservoir in
Pattaya was among the projects proposed by Chonburi. The 30-million-baht
project aims to increase tap water production to prevent possible water
shortages and cope with the rising demand and the growing number of
tourists in Pattaya.
The PM also met with the Joint Standing Committee on
Commerce, Industry and Banking; chaired a meeting of the Regional Joint
Public/Private Sector Consultative Committee; chaired a meeting with
governors of the eastern region provinces; toured Laem Chabang port and
the Maptaput industrial zone in Rayong; discussed the possibility of
developing U-Tapao-Rayong-Pattaya International Airport into a full
commercial airport; and chaired the Cabinet session before returning to
Bangkok on June 19.
The Chonburi meeting was the Cabinet’s fifth meeting
outside the capitol this year. The panel met in Chiang Mai in January,
Udon Thani in February, Phuket in March, and Kanchanaburi in May.
Prime Minister Yingluck
Shinawatra is mobbed by her devoted fans in Laem Chabang.
