PM promises villagers he will consider staying in power longer
FOR THE FIRST TIME in more than three years, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday positively responded to a request for him to extend his stay in office during his visit to the northeastern province of Kalasin.
“We would like to see the premier in office for another 10 years,” said one unidentified villager, while Prayut told them that if they |wanted him to stay, he would consider it.
The premier attempted to charm provincial voters as he announced a series of multi-billion-baht investment programmes to tackle poverty, water resources and other local issues.
The premier also unveiled plans to invest about Bt4 billion to improve Kalasin’s water resource management system and |implement other measures to reduce poverty as the province |is ranked among the country’s poorest.
Prayut told villagers that his government would help them raise more livestock instead of planting more agricultural crops, which are being affected by depressed farm prices worldwide.
Wearing a Phu Tai local shirt and dancing with local performers, Prayut apparently enjoyed spending time in Kalasin.
Besides meeting with local people, Prayut also gave away dozens of cows, buffaloes and agricultural tools to farmers before visiting an irrigation development project in the afternoon.
He also visited the Phu Tai Cultural Centre, a local weaving cooperative under the royal patronage of HM the Queen |Sirikit.
After Prayut announced the general election would be held next year, he has appeared to have planned more brief field trips to faraway provinces.
Last week, he visited the southern province of Trang to inspect flood management and other works, but in Kalasin he focused on local development as well as contacts with local residents.
While his trip to Songkhla and Pattani in late November did not end well after confrontations between villagers and officers, Prayut seemed to perform better in Kalasin as he cheerfully performed local traditional dances with residents.
He also told villagers that the government had allocated Bt305 million for irrigation development and Bt1.4 billion for three road construction projects.
Relations based on pledge
Earlier this week, the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council decided to restore full political contact with Thailand after suspending relations following the coup in 2014.
The EU cited Prayut’s pledge to hold the polls in November 2018 during a visit to the US as a major factor for restoring full political contact.
In addition, the EU will explore possibilities to resume negotiations with Thailand on a Free Trade Agreement, after talks were |suspended more than three years ago.
At present, the EU is Thailand’s fourth biggest trading partner and a major foreign investor in the country.
Prayut has also expressed hope that the EU will remove the “yellow card” concerning problems from Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fisheries as Thailand had taken legal and other measures to address the issue.
