AGRICULTURE REFORM PLAN APPROVED
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The government yesterday approved a five-year strategic plan to reform the agriculture sector, with a total budget of Bt35 billion to be spent from fiscal 2015 to 2019.
Chaired by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Council of Economic Ministers agreed with the plan that comprises 10 projects, including reforms in rice production |structure, livestock production, fisheries production, oil palm production and marketing structure. The plan also calls for a write-off of farmers’ debts, introduction and amendments of relevant laws, an improvement of farmers’ registration system, and the setting up of a rice seed centre.
Of the total expenditures, Bt15 billion will be funded by annual government budgets and the rest through borrowing from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.
FEB MANUFACTURING INDEX UP FIRST TIME
The Manufacturing Production Index in February showed growth for the first time in 23 months, according to the Ministry of Industry.
Somsak Jantararoungtong, deputy director of the ministry’s Office of Industrial Economics, said the MPI rose to 171.91 last month, up 3.6 per cent from 166.01 recorded in February last year.
The growth mainly stemmed from industries including oil refining, beer, sugar, apparel, automobiles, and electronic parts.
However, capacity utilisation during the month dropped to 61.4 per cent, compared with 58.92 per cent a year ago.
The ministry forecast that output, having dropped 4.6 per cent last year, could increase by 3-4 per cent this year.
February output easily beat the most optimistic forecast of a 0.59-per-cent increase in a Reuters poll. The poll median was for a 0.25-per-cent drop.
TOSHIBA HYDRO WINS TURBINES CONTRACT
Toshiba Corporation yesterday announced that Toshiba Hydro Power (Hangzhou), a Chinese subsidiary that manufactures, sells and maintains hydroelectric equipment, had won a major order to supply four units of 77-megawatt hydro turbines and generators for a Myanmar hydropower plant.
The contract is for the 308MW Upper Yeywa Hydropower Plant that Myanmar Electric Power Enterprise will construct northeast of Mandalay. Deliveries to the project’s EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor, China’s Zhejiang Orient Engineering Co, will start in March next year.
Toshiba Group previously supplied a hydraulic turbine for the 28.4MW Sedawgyi hydroelectric power plant in 1989, making this the second commission from Myanmar. Hydro is currently Myanmar’s primary source of electricity, accounting for about 75 per cent of the country’s power supply.
