PM arrives in Japan and meets with business leaders
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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Friday began her visit to Japan, where she will attend the 4th Mekong-Japan Summit and also meet with Japanese business leaders.
The Mekong-Japan Summit, which takes place on Saturday, will see the leaders from the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) - Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand - meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who will chair the gathering.
The summit will review the implementation of programmes and projects under the 63-point Action Programme, the Mekong-Japan Economic and Industrial Cooperation Initiative (MJ-CI) and the Green Mekong Initiative.
The leaders are expected to adopt the “Tokyo Strategy for Mekong-Japan Cooperation” as a foundation for Mekong-Japan cooperation for the next three years, from 2013 to 2015, focusing on promoting communications between the GMS, cooperation for mutual development and measures to ensure security and protect the environment.
The summit follows the 3rd Mekong-Japan Summit in Bali, Indonesia in November last year, which focused on responses to natural disasters and management of water resources.
Yingluck said before the meeting that Thailand was attending the summit as a crucial strategic partner with Japan in the sustainable co-development of the Mekong River delta.
Thailand has played an active role in the past in developing various aspects of the GMS including infrastructure, competitiveness and human resources, she said.
After the summit, Yingluck will visit and be briefed about the operations of Japanese rail services, particularly the Shinkansen bullet train before returning to Thailand on Sunday.
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Somchai’s daughter guilty of filing false asset statement, gets 5-year ban
The Supreme Court Friday removed a daughter of former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat as an MP and placed her under five-year political ban for making a false asset declaration.
The Criminal Division for Holders of Political Office found Chinnicha Wongsawat guilty of failing to declare her debt worth Bt100 million upon assuming position as a Pheu Thai MP.
The court initially sentenced Chinnicha to two months in jail but suspended the jail term for a year on the grounds that she has never been in prison. She was also fined Bt4,000.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission filed the suit against Chinnicha , alleging that she had falsified her asset statement to the NACC when she took office as an MP.
The NACC learned of Chinnicha’s Bt100 million debt to Bannapot Damapong only after Chinnicha informed the Supreme Court that she owned only part of Bt46 billion worth of assets that the NACC asked the court to seize from former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
After Chinnicha lodged a protest against the seizing of Bt100 million, then senator Ruangkrai Likijwatana filed a complaint against her with the NACC.
Chinnichai then filed another report with the NACC stating she owed Bt100 million to Bannaphot on October 31 2008, about eight months after she became a Chiang Mai MP.
In Chinnicha’s argument to the Supreme Court, she said she thought she did not have declare the debt because the assets had been ordered seized by the Assets Examination Committee.
But the court ruled that Chinnicha intended to conceal her debt and chose to punish her by impeachment and banning her for politics for five years.
