Thai PM To Visit Myanmar On First Official Trip

BANGKOK, September 12, 2014 (AFP) - Thailand's coup leader and premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha will visit Myanmar on his first official overseas trip, an official said Friday, as the junta seeks to strengthen ties with its former military-ruled neighbour.

Prayut will travel to Myanmar "as soon as possible", deputy foreign minister Don Pramudwinai told AFP, saying the trip could take place by the end of this month or early October.

"The Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Myanmar as his first foreign country because Myanmar currently chairs ASEAN," Don said, referring to the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations of which Thailand is also a member.

Prayut is next expected to visit other ASEAN member states beginning with Malaysia, he added.

For decades, former military-ruled Myanmar was treated as a pariah state by the West, but since a nominally civilian government took power in 2011, the nation has been lauded for its dramatic reforms.

Thailand's coup makers, meanwhile, have been chided by the United States and the European Union for grabbing power from an elected government in May, spurring the junta to boost relations with Asian neighbours instead.

In July, when Myanmar's army chief Min Aung Hlaing visited Bangkok, the Thai military said it had won the country's backing.

Since the coup, the junta has curtailed dissent in Thailand by hauling in protesters, muzzling the media and threatening those found in breach of martial law with trial in a military court.

Myanmar, which hosted its first ASEAN summit in May, has been a member of the bloc for 17 years but was forced to renounce the rotating presidency in 2006 because of criticism over its rights record and the then-ruling junta's failure to shift to democracy.

Prayut has said he was forced to take power after months of protests against ex-premier Yingluck Shinawatra's administration left 28 people dead and hundreds wounded.

He has ruled out holding new elections before October 2015, despite international appeals for a return to democracy.

Myanmar is also set to hold parliamentary elections next year.

37 Bidders Join Rice Auction

BANGKOK : -- Bidders joined the second rice auction staged by the Foreign Trade Department on Friday. 

The Foreign Trade Department put on auction 139,675 tonnes of rice of various varieties namely 100 percent Hom Mali grade two, 10percent sticky rice, Hom Mali broken rice, Pathum Thani broken rice and A1 white rice.

The number of bidders are less than the first auction which attracted 46 bidders because then 5 percent white rice were put on auction.

Mrs Duangporn Rodpayat, director-general of Foreign Trade Department, said that the bid prices for 90,000 tonnes of rice had passed the minimum benchmark and a new bid will be called for the rest of the rice of this lot.

TransJakarta Says Buses Not Roadworthy

BANGKOK:-- TransJakarta said on Friday that it is unable to provide the best possible service because more than one third of its 700 buses are unfit for use, according to The Jakarta Globe.

“TransJakarta now has 700 buses, only 450 buses are roadworthy, the rest need to be replaced,” said Antonius Kosasih, a director at the bus operator.

Antonius said that in order to meet public demand and prevent accidents, the company was in a dire need of new buses.

TransJakarta needs at least 1,300 buses to provide optimal service for commuters and to make sure queues are not too long, he said.

“If we want to have 1,300 buses, we need to purchase at least 850 buses within the next two years,” Antonius said, adding this number of buses would be sufficient to serve 12 routes.

He also said the company would prepare detailed specifications to avoid a fiasco like the procurement of Chinese-made buses that were found to not meet quality standards.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Muhammad Akbar said his office was working to procure the needed buses.

BANGKOK :-- Thai minister of Transport has made it clear Friday that  his ministry has no plan to approve new fare structures after a Thai taxi network demanded  fare rise with reason that  there had been no adjustment in the past ten years. 

Transport Minister ACM Prajin Juntong said Friday  that his ministry will not  review the new taxi fare structure proposed by the Thai Taxi Network, representing 80,000 taxis in greater Bangkok.

Based on the new fare formula, the taxi network asked that the flag fall rate will be kept unchanged at 35 baht but the distance fare will rise up to 25 percent.

However ACM Prajin said there is no need to increase taxi fares as yet because it looks like the gas price would not go much higher this year.

Taxi fares will remain unchanged until Transport Ministry study whether the country is ready for fare increase.

The study will consider new fares and fuel price and the result should come out within the first week of October, he said.

PM Receives Warm Welcome In Sukhothai

SUKHOTHAI : -- A large number of people showed up to give  a warm welcome to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha when he visited Kong Krailat district of Sukhothai province Friday afternoon – the first inspection trip outside Bangkok since he took office as the government leader. 

He was accompanied by Deputy Defence Minister General Udomdej Seetabutr and other senior government officials, the prime minister took a boat ride to visit villagers in flooded areas and to give them relief supplies.

General Prayuth told the affected people to have patience promising that the government would try as quick as possible to relieve their sufferings.

Regarding the flood problem caused by swollen Yom river, the prime minister said that since there is not a single dam in the Yom river, the immediate method to ease the problem was to divert water from the river into the money cheeks on both sides of the river and punched a big hole in a road which is blocking the water flow.

On long-term solution, he said that the government had a master plan to manage water resources which would resolve or ease flood problem and drought across the country.

The prime minister assured that flood problem this year is not serious but warned that next year would be dry and measures have to be prepared now to cope with the problem.

BANGKOK : -- More than half of the people polled in an opinion survey are confident that the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha will be able to improve Thailand’s image as far as corruption problem is concerned.

The latest poll, called Bangkok Poll, was conducted by the research centre of Bangkok University on September 3-4.   Altogether 1,045 people from various parts of the country were polled.

The results of the opinion survey are as follows:

Asked how confident they are about the government’s efforts to tackle the scourge of corruption which will help improve the country’s image, 69.8 percent said they are confident against 23.6 percent who said they have little confidence.

Asked how confident they are regarding reform to deal with corruption problem in government’s procurement projects, 60.3 percent said they are confident against 31.9 percent who said they are not.
On election reform to get rid of vote buying, 58.1 percent do not believe that the reform can solve the problem against 34.5 percent who believe the reformc an help.

The poll also shows 41.8 percent believe corruption problem will stage a comeback after the departure of the Prayuth’s government against 44.2 percent who believe the situation will improve after the government’s departure.

78.5 percent feel that the graft problem has gradually improved since the arrival of the National Council for Peace and Order whereas 13.4 percent said that there is nothing change.  73.9 percent said the new cabinet’s image is much better than the previous cabinets.

PM vows To Cleanse Thailand Of Corruption

BANGKOK : -- Thai Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha vowed to make Thailand free from corruption, and  acceptable by the world communities to be a haven for foreign  investment. 

He called on foreign rating firms not to downgrade the country’s rating as Thailand is making headway in cleansing the country and is making it a haven for foreign investment.

“Please do not further downgrade our country, we’re making progress in the cleanup,” he said.

In the address before noon Saturday to the people gathering at the Bangkok Convention Centre in the Centara Grand Hotel  to mark the “Anti-Corruption Day” under the theme “Hand in Hand” hosted  by the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand and its affiliates, Gen Prayuth affirmed the elimination of corruption is the “heart” of the National Council for Peace and Order’s  (NCPO) task that must be accomplished when it decided to seize power.

Therefore, he said, the issue would be undertaken by the military junta seriously and to be achieved otherwise its power seizure to reform the country from this deep-rooted and evil  problem could be a waste.

He said this was the reason why the junta fixed corruption elimination as the national agenda after seeing the problem has escalated intensely and has become the major cause of widening rifts in the Thai societies and division of the Thai people.

He said rampant corruption has not only creating rifts, widening conflicts, but also undermining investment confidence of both local and foreign investors.

“We can’ t let this problem to prevail further as it will destabilise the country and thus we have to build the new society, the new generation with strength to fight corruption and make a free and clean society,” he said.

But he said only the NCPO and the government themselves could not achieve in fighting corruption, but needed cooperation from all sectors of the societies to join and not to fall prey into the hands of certain groups of people.

He said new generation will be instilled with merits, ethics, and morality, and the people will also be encouraged with new attitude.

They must now change from the culture of just staying put or ignoring this serious problem  to be alarming against corruption.

Gen Prayuth also said today would become a history for Thailand to rebuild the country to a corruption free place that could  par with other developed country.

He said some developing  countries  spent six years to fight and eliminate corruption, and upgrading  themselves to same standards as other developed countries.

For Thailand, the future remained unknown if how many years would be taken.

However he said a history would be made following the courage of the private sector such as ACT to undertake the task.

But he said the military junta has strong determination to achieve the goals with its reforms of eleven areas, to achieve a sustainable solution so that it could pass on to new government to pursue.

He said the junta’s corruption elimination task  was not to put pressure on officials.

The junta will apply self sufficiency philosophy, generosity in its task, he said.

He sought cooperation from all the people to pay taxes so that the money could be used to improve the quality of lives of the people, particularly the poor, the farmers so they  can live in dignity same as the others in the societies.