Thailand to produce more processed fruits

BANGKOK, April 22 (TNA) - The Ministry of Industry will support the more production of processed Thai fruits and other farm products to boost their prices and income for local growers, as the Thai Kingdom is a world major production source of agricultural products. The move was suggested by Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, who oversees economic affairs, on Monday when he visited the Ministry of Industry in Bangkok and held a meeting with the ministry's executives and relevant parties. During the meeting, the Thai deputy premier assigned the ministry's Department of Industrial Promotion to pursue the move on the expanding production of the more value-added processed Thai fruits, in particular, covering the promotion of more investment of cold storage houses. Besides, the deputy prime minister suggested the state-run Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) to move itself ahead towards the IEAT 4.0 to serve and facilitate expanding 4.0 international investment projects in the country in the coming years, along with the development of the phase 3 of the Map Ta Phut Deep Seaport in Rayong Province in the Thai East. The deputy prime minister also recommended that the development of Thailand's special economic zones (SEZs) in the eastern Sa Kaeo Province and the lower northern Tak Province, as well as the southern Songkhla and Narathiwat Provinces be in line with the government's policy over the next five years on promoting and supporting the domestic bio-industrial sector and business operators of startups. As part of official measures towards the solution to the problem of smog, including the hazardous dust or the particulate matter of 2.5 micrometers in diameter per cubic meter (PM2.5), the Thai deputy prime minister, meanwhile, ordered the ministry's Office of Cane and Sugar Board to expedite its move to reduce and stop burnings of sugar canes within the next few years, funded by a state budget of about 2 billion baht to provide necessary assistance to local growers of sugar canes. (TNA)