Mobile cabinet meeting heads to Phuket

She was welcomed at the Phuket Airport by hundreds of people who called for the government to solve the impacts from government mine and stone mill factories in Songkhla province and for the rehabilitation of Andaman coastal seamen.

The Phuket meeting is the third in the on-site upcountry meetings, which began in Chiang Mai on January 15 and Udon Thani on February 22.

Yingluck and her cabinet members left Bangkok from Don Mueang military airport at 8.30am on a Royal Thai Air Force aircraft to Phuket. 

The premier and her ministers will visit Phang-nga and Phuket today before she chairs the Cabinet meeting at Prince of Songkhla University Phuket campus on Tuesday.

Upon arrival, Yingluck went to Phang Nga to chair a meeting to clarify government policy on the Thai Women's Empowerment Fund to women's organisations in the South. 

She will later visit the tsunami memorial, Police Vessel Tor 813 at Ban Bang Niang in Phang-nga before heading to Phuket to inspect a road construction project and preside over the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) Fair.

Yingluck is scheduled to chair the Regional Joint Public/Private Sector Consultative Committee and it was expected that the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking of the three private institutions (JSCCIB), comprising the Board of Trade of Thailand, the Federation of Thai Industries, and the Thai Bankers' Association will propose development projects for five coastal Andaman Sea provinces - Ranong, Krabi, Phang Nga, Trang and Phuket.

The projects include the expansion of Highway No 4 along the Andaman Sea coast, a dual track railway to the southern provinces (Bangkok-Chumphon-Su-ngai Kolok- Padang Besar); measures to promote the para wood industry, an artificial coral project, and tourism industry development.

The private sector proposal will be forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration Tuesday.

The prime minister and the Cabinet are scheduled to return to Bangkok Tuesday afternoon.