BANGKOK, 01 Oct 2013 – Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Yukol Limlamthong yesterday met with officials responsible for implementing the rubber compensation scheme to discuss ways to wind up the registration of rubber growers within mid-October.
During the meeting with the Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund, the Deputy Prime Minister instructed the officials to examine the plots of land registered for the Government’s assistance in order to accelerate the fund distribution process. Mr. Yukol aims to complete the registration within the middle of this month so that the exact figures will be forwarded to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives for sorting out the payment.
At the moment 890,000 rubber farmers out of an estimated 1 million have registered for the scheme. Out of that number 26,000 have been verified, and 4,648 have received the fund. So far 55 million baht worth of compensation has been handed out.
Meanwhile, the Government is also pushing for the use of surplus rubber. The Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center has proposed to use rubber in projects to repair and construct more than 200 kilometer-long roads. The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has expressed interest in using rubber to build athlete lanes and playgrounds. More rubber induced road construction projects are also proposed by the Transport Ministry.
The fund needed to materialize the aforementioned projects will soon be finalized and proposed to the cabinet for approval.
