Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said Wednesday that his slightly more than a month-old government would speed up implementation of three significant projects to boost the grassroots economy.
Somchai said at the end of a workshop which discussed ways to help rural poor that his government would move forward on the three projects including Village Fund, One Tambon (sub-district) One Product (OTOP) and small and medium-sized lending (SML) program.
The projects were first launched by the ousted government of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The Thai government will register the Village Fund like a corporate firm and will also increase the amount of each fund to 1.5 million baht (44,117 U.S. dollars) from the present 1 million baht (29,441 U.S. dollars), depending on the needs of villagers, According to local newspaper Bangkok Post's website.
Deputy Prime Minister Olarn Chaipravat and Finance Minister Suchart Thada-Thamrongvech will be responsible for assuring that the program achieves success.
Regarding the OTOP program, Somchai said his government would try to set up trade centers in every province to display goods produced under the OTOP.
In an attempt to publicize products made under the government-sponsored program, locally-produced Thai goods will be displayed at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit to beheld in the northern province of Chiang Mai in December, Somchai said.
Budgets will be allocated to every province to be spent on developing villages under the SML fund program, he said. Both the finance and interior ministries are assigned to monitor and ensure that the budget is spent transparently.
Source:Xinhua
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