Thai PM: Women’s development fund aimed at enhancing female roles

BANGKOK, January 28 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says that the women’s development fund set up recently by her government is aimed at boosting women’s roles in developing the Kingdom and improving their quality of life so that they can help support their families and the Thai society. Yingluck told delegates attending a speech entitled ‘Women as the Way Forward’, organised as part of the 42nd World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, that women are still suffering from discrimination, compared to men, in almost every country in the world. Yingluck said a large number of women to date still receive less education and lesser income, face more difficulties in access to capital sources and opportunities for owning property and even become victims of sexual violence from men. The Thai premier acknowledged that there is a need to solve the problems and related-social concepts, and that her government has, therefore, set up, for the first time, the women’s development fund aimed at developing women's roles in Thailand, which should eventually help stabilise the national economy and politics. According to the first female Thai prime minister, her government has set up the 7.7-billion-baht women’s development fund for all 77 Thai provinces, 100 million baht each, sponsored by taxpayers’ money, after taking office last August. (TNA)