Thai people's quality of life to be upgraded through sufficiency economy

BANGKOK, October 15 (TNA) - The Thai government plans to spend a state budget of additional 8 billion baht on further developing people's quality of life based on the sufficiency economy principle advised by His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej. Thongthong Chandrangsu, Permanent Secretary for the Prime Minister's Office, told reporters on Monday that the plan is part of the Thai government's 9-billion-baht scheme being implemented, aimed to upgrade local communities nationwide through the royally-initiated sufficiency economy philosophy. As the Thai government earlier allocated 1 billion baht for the implementation of the scheme, covering a reforestation project of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, Thongthong acknowledged that the government will spend the remaining earmarked budget on expanding the scheme to also support royal development projects which enable locals to further improve their quality of life by applying knowledge gained from the projects. According to the senior official, projects to be funded by the state budget under the scheme are to be proposed and implemented by associations, foundations, agricultural cooperatives, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government agencies, with requested fund not exceeding 2 million baht each and such the projects can be proposed through administrative offices of all provinces and the Social Development Department of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). The senior official said the government has formed a committee to consider relevant projects and budget allocation to support them, headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan, after they are initially approved by scrutiny sub-committees at the provincial level and project facilitation sub-committees. The senior official noted that qualified projects include those being ready for immediate implementation and set to be completed within one year, and that the overall 9-billion-baht sum resulted from overdue disbursement from state budgets in the fiscal years of 2009, 2010 and 2011.(TNA)