Deputy national police chief Pol General Weerachai Songmetta yesterday afternoon presided over a press conference at the Government Complex on Bangkok’s Chaeng Wattana Road to announce the seizure of Lyn products worth Bt24 million.

Lyn weight-loss products might contain the appetite suppressant Sibutramine and the laxative Bisacodyl, police said.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2010 ordered that production of Sibutramine be discontinued. FDA had issued a warning on April 25 that the Lyn product in a white box contained Sibutramine and its product in a black box contained Bisacodyl and both could have dangerous side effects.

Weerachai had previously said on Sunday that four people who had ingested the products had died, allegedly from side effects.

A 31-year-old woman in Kanchanaburi had taken the pills for 30 days and died on March 28. The medical examiner’s preliminary ruling was that she died of acute heart failure.

A 33-year-old Bangkok man who had taken the pills for 10 days died on April 6 after suffering a stroke and losing consciousness.

A 48-year-old Pathum Thani man who had taken the pills for more than a month died on April 27, with preliminary tests indicating acute heart failure.

The fourth person was said in social media posts to have died on April 28 after taking the pills. Weerachai had said the four were reportedly physically strong, working-age people. The first three experienced in common tightness in the chest and loss of consciousness before they died.

Weerachai urged anyone taking the Lyn products distributed by Akeakkarin Co should stop in the interest of their own safety. Anyone selling Lyn products directly or online could be charged with violating the Food Act, a crime punishable by up to two years in jail and/or a fine of up to Bt20,000.

Weerachai said police would summon the products’ owner, identified as Pilapat Akeakkarin, 40, who could be charged with manslaughter if the four deaths are confirmed to be linked to the pills.

Lyn food supplements’ packaging allegedly carries FDA registration numbers allocated to a different kind of food, fish sauce, Weerachai said. Retailers and distributors could face charges of handling products whose contents don’t match the ingredients listed on the labels, of colluding to set up a food factory without permission, and to manufacture and sell fake food products, Weerachai said. As is the case with Magic Skin products, celebrities have promoted these supplements in “product review” advertisements.They are to be summoned for questioning.

Under the regulation, FDA officials will inspect the factory before an FDA registration number could be issued for its cosmetic products – which were normally considered low-risk as they are for external use – FDA secretary-general Dr Wanchai Satayawutthipong said yesterday.

This was an extra step to the existing requirement – the submission of the cosmetic product’s formula, ingredients and the factory address – required for an FDA hallmark application.

The factory inspection is already a requirement for an FDA hallmark application for a food supplement.

In future, a list of FDA-approved factories would be drawn up and health products could be manufactured at these registered places only, he said.

The authority will also address the forging of the FDA hallmark – which, along with the FDA-approved registration number, is what consumers look for to ensure a product’s safety. Wanchai said the logo would be modified to make it more difficult to fake.

Celebrities providing “product review” advertisements for a cosmetic product or food supplement would be liable for a jail term – not just a fine – if the product is found to have caused a users’ death, he said. The FDA would also ask the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to scrap inappropriate product advertisements.

In future, the FDA would blacklist those people who applied for FDA approval but their product quality or safety was deemed substandard, illegal or not as claimed. This would avoid repeat offences, he said. Currently the FDA can just prohibit the use of a product formula, not a person.

More than 700,000 cosmetic products and 30,000 food supplement products have been registered with the Thai FDA.

The PACC probes didn’t find evidence of, or witnesses to, wrongdoings at the centres in Sing Buri, Chacherngsao, Prachin Buri, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nonthaburi, Phrae, Nakhon Sawan, Sukhothai, and Uttaradit, said PACC secretary-general Korntip Daroj.

The PACC, which has been investigating the allegations since February, issued a summary on Monday. Korntip said the PACC board had set up sub-committees to further investigate 43 of the 67 provincial centres. Setting up sub-panels to further probe the other 24 centres would be considered on Thursday, he said.

The PACC had previously passed on the names of 156 state officials and employees for the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security to consider appropriate punishments, Korntip said.

Another 33 names have since been sent to the ministry for consideration. This brings the total number of state officials and employees facing accusations to 189, Korntip said. Once all inquiries by PACC sub-panels were completed, that number might raise beyond 250 state officials and employees, he said.

The wrongdoings at 67 centres were similar, and included taking villagers’ ID cards for “activities arranging” but actually using them to forge state documents to withdraw allowances that were later paid only partially to the villagers or not at all, he said.

There was insufficient evidence that the wrongdoings were orchestrated by an organised group, he said. It was more like that the allegedly corrupt officials shared information about their wrongdoings, resulting in copycat behaviour by officials at other centres.

From Tuesday, the PACC would proceed with “phase three” of its separate corruption probe against 28 self-help settlement centres, hilltribe development centres and co-op co-ordinating centres under the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, involving damages worth Bt100 million. This is expected to be completed in 90 days, he added.

Activist networks have suggested that Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha should exercise the special power, through his role as chief of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), to order the demolition. But that does not appear likely.

“It’s not reasonable to invoke Article 44 for the removal of the structures,” Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said yesterday.

He said that the buildings, constructed at a cost of about Bt1 billion, are state properties.

“Dismantling them is illegal,” Wissanu said.

He was speaking after about 3,000 people rallied in Chiang Mai on Sunday to oppose court officials’ plans to live in condo buildings and houses on the slope of Doi Suthep.

Although authorities have insisted that the plot is not inside the Doi Suthep – Pui National Park, opponents claim that those structures have nevertheless eaten into the forest zone. The mountain is said to be sacred to the local community.

Opponents have demanded that the government cancel the use of the structures deemed as encroaching on nature.

“The constructions are legal. But they run against public sentiment,” Wissanu said.

He said that, in the end, the government would have to make a decision on how to settle the dispute.

Speaking separately, NCPO spokesperson Maj-General Piyapong Klinphan said Prayut had ordered the establishment of a working panel to find the best solution to the problem.

“National interests are the priority in efforts to solve the dispute,” he said.

He said the panel would focus on finding a possible solution that was acceptable to all sides and caused no damage to the country.

According to Piyapong, NCPO secretary-general and Army chief General Chalermchai Sittisart instructed all sides to help create mutual understanding on the issue so that it was easier for the panel to solve the dispute.

LABOUR-RIGHTS activists are pressing for better welfare and law enforcement for workers, both Thais and migrants, on the occasion of Labour Day.

Celebrated on May 1 every year, this important day gives workers and activists ample opportunities to make their voices heard.

This year, labour groups and activists are laying stronger emphasis on welfare, particularly for Thai workers’ retirement. They expressed satisfaction with available benefits for migrant workers, but called for a more efficient process for workers to exercise their rights.

Confederation of Thai Labour president Manas Kosol said yesterday that his group would underline the need to ensure greater welfare and retirement savings for Thai workers.

“For example, social security members’ right to medical services should not be reduced only because they reached retirement,” he said.

He also urged the government to heed labour groups’ demands for better retirement benefits.

Among these demands are that provident fund be made mandatory, and that the social security scheme’s old-age benefit for each retiree should be no less than Bt5,000 a month.

Thailand is now an ageing society. More than 17 per cent of the Thai population are now elderly.

Concerned parties, therefore, are paying serious attention to the need to help people prepare for their retirement.

Manas added that the government should also consider setting up a fund to help shoulder the risks of employers going out of business without offering any severance pay to employees.

Adisorn Kerdmongkol, an expert in migrant workers’ rights at the Migrant Working Group, said labour protection laws for migrant workers in Thailand had made significant progress.

“Still, we need to do more to enable migrants to efficiently exercise their rights,” he said.

According to him, migrant workers have contributed hugely to Thailand’s manufacturing and service sector.

“So, we should push for their better protection such as allowing them to set up labour unions,” Adisorn said, adding that some Thai labour leaders and many Thai employers have opposed the draft law that would allow migrant workers to set up labour unions.

Adisorn also commented that migrant workers should be allowed to claim a retirement bonus before they leave Thailand.

“Why do they have to wait till they reach their homeland to get the retirement bonus?” he asked.

Jeab, a 30-year-old Cambodian worker in Thailand, said he was happy with his work conditions and wages here.

“I am paid Bt480 a day plus free accommodation,” he said from a construction site.

Jeab said his savings were now growing and he could not ask for more from the Thai government.

Mai, another construction worker from Cambodia, was less happy as he was paid just Bt350 a day.

“I don’t have any savings at all,” Mai said.

He also said several of his subordinates received an even lower wage.

“They earn just between Bt240 and Bt250 a day,” he said.

According to the Raks Thai Foundation, migrant workers usually work in the construction, fisheries, and related industries.

Today, labour groups will organise various activities to mark Labour Day.

It will start with religious rituals, after which members of 17 labour-related groups will march from the Nang Loeng race course to the yard in front of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s headquarters.

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha will attend the event to hear the workers’ demands.

Thai Labour Solidarity Committee vice president Chalee Loysoong said he hoped the government would raise the minimum daily wage further so as to ensure the wage was enough to support at least three persons.

At present, the minimum daily wage ranges between Bt308 and Bt330.

Sujin Roongsawang, who heads a group coordinating unregistered workers, said about 26 million people worked in the non-formal sector in Thailand.

The sector includes vendors, taxi motorcyclists, house maids and farmers, among others.

“We should develop mechanisms to empower and protect them,” she said.

Deputy national police chief Pol General Weerachai Songmetta said the products might contain the appetite suppressant Sibutramine and the laxative Bisacodyl.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2010 ordered that production of Sibutramine be discontinued.

Weerachai said four people who had ingested the products had died, allegedly from side effects.

A 31-year-old woman in Kanchanaburi had taken the pills for 30 days and died on March 28. The medical examiner’s preliminary ruling was that she died of acute heart failure.

A 33-year-old Bangkok man who had taken the pills for 10 days died on April 6 after suffering a stroke and losing consciousness.

A 48-year-old Pathum Thani man who had taken the pills for more than a month died on April 27, with preliminary tests indicating acute heart failure.

The fourth person was said in social media posts to have died on April 28 after taking the pills.

Weerachai said the four were reportedly physically strong, working-age people. The first three had in common tightness in the chest and loss of consciousness before they died.

He said the FDA had issued a warning on April 25 that the Lyn product in a white box contained Sibutramine and its product in a black box contained Bisacodyl and both could have dangerous side effects.

Weerachai urged anyone taking the products reportedly manufactured by Pathum Thani-based Foodscience Supply Service Co and distributed by Akeakkarin Co should stop for safety’s sake.

Anyone selling the Lyn products directly or online could be charged with violating the Food Act, a crime punishable by up to two years in jail and/or a fine of up to Bt20,000.

Weerachai said police would summon the Lyn products’ owner, identified as Pilapat Akeakkarin, 40, who could be charged with manslaughter if the four deaths are confirmed to be linked to the pills.

Lyn food supplement packaging allegedly carries FDA registration numbers allocated to a different kind of food, fish sauce, police said. Retailers and distributors face charges of handling Lyn products whose contents don’t match the ingredients listed on the labels, and of colluding to set up a food factory without permission and to manufacture and sell fake food products, Weerachai said.

As is the case with Magic Skin products, celebrities promote these supplements in “product review” advertisements. They are to be summoned for questioning.

Two new educational projects are being kicked off this year at a combined budgeted cost of Bt14 billion to feed the demand for skilled workers for the 10 “new engines of growth” or “S-curve industries” as Thailand aspires for an economic transformation.

The projects are designed to graduate a “new breed” of nearly 120,000 skilled workers, including 52,899 educational certificate holders, 6,249 “Por Wor Sor” high vocational certificate holders, and 56,478 bachelor degree holders

The ministry said it would need a total of Bt14.138 billion to cover nine years of project implementation, broken down between Bt12.528 billion to fund actions and Bt1.610 billion to procure equipment and teaching materials..

The Cabinet has approved an initial Bt1.396 billion for this fiscal year, of which the Eastern Economic Corridor Labour Demand for New Growth Engines (2017-2021) project will get Bt119 million and the “Production of Graduates for Thailand’s New Growth Engines” (2018-2026) will get Bt1.277 billion, according to the Education Ministry.

Education Minister Udom Kachintorn said the Cabinet-approved projects were in line with plans for educational reform, the 20-year national strategy, and the “Thailand 4.0” policy, as well as meeting economic goals of curbing the shortage of skilled labour.He said the projects would also address industry’s call for graduates with abilities to match the market demand.

“We were told by industry people that past graduates have had to undergo additional training for 1-2 years before they could start working,” Udom said.

The first project, targeting vocational students, will shift vocational education’s learning methods and curriculum and increase participation from the private sector. Thus at least 50 per cent of study programme time would take place in a real work environment under a teacher or expert supervision. The project, offering a Bt35,000-per-head subsidy, has selected 27 colleges (22 vocational colleges plus five “smart farming” colleges) to join it in producing 8,500 skilled workers in five years for five existing industrial sectors. The sectors are next-generation automotive, smart electronics, high-income tourism and medical tourism, efficient agriculture and biotechnology, and food innovation.

The second project, targeting both advanced vocational students and higher education students, will produce skilled workers in the “new S-curve” industrial sectors – automation and robotics, aerospace, bio-energy and bio-chemicals, digital, and medical and healthcare. It has recruited 20 participating universities covering 235 study programmes.

Udom said the 119 non-degree programmes will have a study time of from six months to one year and offer a Bt60,000 per head per year subsidy. It is expected to produce 51,995 skilled graduates in three years. The 116 degree programmes, whose study time is five years and offer a Bt120,000-Bt150,000 per-head per year subsidy, will produce 56,078 graduates.

Udom said the projects has garnered attention from various companies that are signing up for the EEC.

Secretary-general of the EEC committee, Khanit Saengsuphan, said that last year, companies in the EEC needed 12,213 skilled workers for 224 projects. They included 4,614 workers in 32 projects for next-generation automotive, 3,043 workers in 27 projects for smart electronics and 1,479 workers in 63 projects for bio-energy and bio-chemicals. The EEC focus was now on skill development for the current 200,000 to 300,000 workers while promoting Thai vocational education to produce workers with practical skills.

According to Nipon Jongpitaksila, head of the Rail System Technology Department at Rangsit University’s College of Engineering, his college has also collaborated with Japan’s Nihon University and JR East General Education Centre to broaden students’ skills in the field through hands-on and problem-based learning approaches. Nipon said those with education in rail system engineering and rail system-related business management are in high demand in Asean countries with at least 10,000 positions available per year – at least 2,000 positions of which are in Thailand.

The dean Watcharavee Chandraprakaikul of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s Faculty of Engineering agreed that there was high demand for rail system experts, and said her institute had joined with China’s Luizhou College and Thailand’s SRT Electrified Train Co to develop a study programme. That programme would cater to the country’s current and future demand for such skilled manpower, as Thailand is building more than 400 rail stations and rail networks covering 30,000 kilometres in 76 provinces.

Premium courses in five

high-demand fields

According to Udom, the 19 vocational and technical colleges participating in the projects starting this year would deliver premium “Por Wor Sor” study programmes in five fields in collaboration with expert parties, including educational institutes in China, the Civil Aviation Training Centre (CATC) and the private sector. Premium programme graduates would get two certificates or diplomas – one from Thailand and the other from the collaborating foreign institute.

1. In the field of rail transit systems, a three-year programme in collaboration with China-based institutes will be available at Khon Kaen’s Banphai Industrial and Community Education College, Surat Thani Technical College, Maha Sarakham’s Wapi Pathum Technical College and Chon Buri Technical College.

2. In the field of mechatronics, a two-and-a-half-year programme in collaboration with China’s Tianjin Bohai Vocational Technical College will be available at Ayutthaya Technical College and Bangkok’s Min Buri Technical College.

3. In the field of aircraft mechanics, a two-year programme based on the International Civil Aviation Organisation standard will be available at Phuket’s Thalang Technical College, Chon Buri’s Sattahip Technical College, Bangkok’s Don Meuang Technical College, Samut Prakan Technical College, Ubon Ratchathani Technical College and Khon Kaen Technical College. The programme was developed in collaboration with CATC and private sectors.

4. In the field of industrial robotics, a two-year programme with collaboration with German institutes is available at four provincial technical colleges in Samut Songkhram, Samut Sakhon Saraburi and Suphan Buri.

5. In the field of logistics, a two-and-a-half-year programme in collaboration with China’s Chongqing City Management College will be available at Udon Thani Vocational College.

As well, KOSEN colleges of technology in Japan will collaborate with Nakhon Ratchasima’s Suranaree Technical College to teach Mechatronics and Robotics, and with Chon Buri’s Science Based Technology Vocational College to teach Industrial Robotics. Both are special five-year “Por Wor Sor” programmes recruiting Mathayom 3 graduates. Mathayom 3 graduates usually study the “Por Wor Chor” programme for three years first, before they can continue to the two-year “Por Wor Sor” programmes