The move came after Thailand’s agricultural sector faced problems resulting from the global crop-price slump, natural disasters, and rising production costs.

The fund is also aimed at financing development of community infrastructure and alleviating the shortage of necessary production factors.

Each of the country’s 79,000 villages will be allocated Bt500,000. The budget will be disbursed within six months. The money is to be used to finance construction of barns, drying houses, community mills, community fertiliser plants, water reservoirs and agricultural machinery, and other activities that could improve the local economy.

Thailand will contribute Bt52.8 billion, of which the initial amount is Bt10.5 billion. Of this amount, payment will be made in five instalments, each of which is around Bt2.1 billion. The first instalment will be paid on the signing date of an agreement to set up the AIIB.

The Cabinet also approved a budget of Bt271 million for the Command Centre for Resolving Civil Aviation Issues to improve qualifications of personnel responsible for aviation safety.

The Cabinet rejected a one-year plan to hire a private company to operate the joint section stretching for 1 kilometre from the end of the MRT Purple Line at Tao Poon Station to the Blue Line’s Bang Sue Station,Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said after the meeting.

He said the Cabinet had instructed the three participating agencies, the Transport Ministry, the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand, and the committee founded under Article 13 of the PPPAct 1992 to review its proposed plan on how to manage the joint 1km section.

According the result of the negotiations between the authorities and Bangkok Metro, now known as Bangkok Expressway and Metro, which operates the Purple Line and the current Blue Line, the operator will take about 15 months to install the signalling system for the joint section.

A Cabinet resolution in October 2014 said that this operation on Purple Line of Tao Poon-Bang Sue should have same period of the Blue Line until 2029.Arkhom said construction of the Blue Line Bang Sue-Tha Phra and Hua Lamphong-Bang Khae extensions would be complete by the end of 2018 and start operation by early in 2019.

If the one-year operation for the joint section had been approved, it would have required about 15 months to install the signalling system, he added.