Investors want water projects implemented, says Kittiratt

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said investors were already worried that the water-management modules have hit a snag.
Last month, the Central Administrative Court ordered relevant authorities to fully comply with legal stipulations before pushing ahead with the implementation of the modules.
“I have to explain to the investors that in compliance with the ruling, these modules are now in the stage of conducting public hearings, environmental impact assessments, and health impact assessments,” Kittiratt said yesterday.
He said following his explanations, investors understood the situation more.
“But they are still closely monitoring the implementation of the water modules. They want to know whether their factories in Thailand will be safe,” he said.
When the flood crisis hit Thailand in 2011, seven industrial estates succumbed. “The big floods caused investors massive damage,” Kittiratt pointed out.
He added that spending Bt350 billion on protecting assets of the private sector was a necessary move.
In the wake of the crisis, the government approved the Bt350-billion budget for the overhaul of the country’s water-management systems in a bid to reduce both flood and drought risks.
“Don’t think that we [just] protect investors. We have to take into account the fact that investors hire millions of people,” Kittiratt said.
When asked what would happen if the government could not go ahead with the Bt2-trillion transport-infrastructure projects and the Bt350-billion water-management system improvement, Kittiratt said, “The damage would be inestimable.”