“I have ordered the Student Protection Centre, an affiliate of Obec, to coordinate with regional education offices and schools in risky areas to monitor the PM2.5 situation closely, especially in Bangkok and its perimeter,” he said. “If the air quality in these areas dips below the recommended standard, the schools should reduce or halt outdoor activities for students, or consider closing entirely until the situation improves.”

Amnat, however, said schools should not close for more than seven days so that students’ learning is not disrupted, especially now that the ONET [Ordinary National Education Test] and the final exams of the second semester are coming close.

“Schools may consider opening on weekends, if necessary, to make up classes missed due to any closure,” he added.

“Furthermore, Obec has given surgical masks to all students in schools in risky areas for free, and also ordered schools to follow regulations to reduce PM2.5 problems in educational institutions as stated by the Ministry of Education since last year,” the Obec chief said.

“The Air Force commander-in-chief has also set measures to reduce the environmental impact by ordering all officers who use aircraft to report if they come across a forest fire or smoke, so we can cooperate with related authorities to solve the problem immediately,” he said.

Pongsak said Maanat ordered all officers to “support Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry efforts to make royal rain or spray water”.

“The Air Force will conduct test flights by using BT-67 and C-130 aircraft equipped with water containers by the end of this month to tackle forest fires, which often occur during the drought season,” Pongsak said.

He added that Manaat ordered the officers to study applying technology to help solve the problem and support the government in the long term.

The SET index moved between 1,598.70 and 1,586.73 during the day.

A stock analyst attributed the drop to the worse-than-expected performance of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) in the fourth quarter of 2019.

“SCB’s net profit fell to Bt5.50 billion in the period, down 63 per cent quarter on quarter and far worse than the market expectation of 41 per cent,” the stock analyst said.

This week, Kasikorn Securities (KSecurities) expects support level at 1,590 and 1,580 points, resistance at 1,610 and 1,620 points.

Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 24,083.51, up 42.25 points, or 0.18 per cent.

China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 3,095.79, up 20.29 points, or 0.66 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 28,795.91, down 260.51 points, or 0.90 per cent.

South Korea’s KOSPI Index closed at 2,262.64, up 12.07 points or 0.54 per cent.

Taiwan’s TAIEX Index closed at 12,118.71, up 28.42 points, or 0.24 per cent.

In a statement, Amnesty said the spate of prosecutions targeting the party “appear to be in clear retaliation for activities of the party that fall within the exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association”.

The case against Future Forward was initiated on June 18 by a petition filed with the Constitutional Court by Natthaporn Toprayoon, former adviser to the chief ombudsman. Future Forward leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul and several party executives are alleged to have violated Section 49 of the 2017 Constitution through acts deemed to have the intention of overthrowing the constitutional monarchy, Amnesty noted.

Despite the party’s request for a full inquiry, the court concluded that there was sufficient evidence to issue a ruling in the case, and refused to summon witnesses or examine evidence, Amnesty said.

“The party could face disbandment if the court upholds the complaint, which would violate Thailand’s human rights obligations, including the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association of the party’s members,” the statement added.

Amnesty noted that another case against the party came after the Election Commission recommended that the Constitutional Court dissolve the party, in a filing dated December 11. The document alleged that the party was in breach of Sections 62, 66 and 72 of the Political Parties Act, allegedly because it had accepted more than Bt10 million in one year and accepted “illegitimate sources” of funds. The party’s 15 executive members face a ban from competing in elections or founding a party for up to ten years, while the party itself faces dissolution. Amnesty said it takes “no position regarding the character of these charges”.

The human rights organisation claimed that the “ongoing attacks on the political opposition must be seen in the context of the Thai authorities’ continuing surveillance, intimidation, harassment and prosecution of pro-democracy activists, human rights defenders, journalists and individuals criticising the government since the May 2014 coup. Such actions continue to cause a chilling effect by way of silencing dissent, causing the public to fear exercising their human rights”.

Amnesty said it calls on Thai authorities, as a state party to a number of international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to “immediately drop all charges against individuals charged simply for the peaceful exercise of their human rights”.

The authorities “must publicly commit to ensuring that all individuals will be allowed to freely exercise their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association”, Amnesty added, urging the international community to “publicly speak out against human rights violations and abuses in the country [and] closely monitor the government’s continued crackdown”.

Minister Puttipong Punnakanta said that he and his team held talks with directors of Facebook, the world’s largest social network, in Silicon Valley, United States.

They discussed various issues, including how to work together, in four areas:

1. Creating awareness of people’s privacy on how to be safe online, as well as providing knowledge for small and medium-sized enterprises on the protocol needed for conducting business.

2. Encouraging people to participate in the economy and digital society, especially enabling people with visual, hearing, and physical disabilities, including those who have difficulty in learning to take advantage of technology.

“We also have an idea to host a Hackathon competition to create technology for helping people with disabilities; many projects in the past have achieved success,” Puttipong said.

3. Setting commercial guidelines, such as collecting tax on advertisement trading in Thailand, controlling counterfeit or illegal products sold on Facebook.

4. Discussing cooperation to solve the problems of fake news and inappropriate content on Facebook, such as the process of deleting fake accounts or information.

“During the discussion, Facebook’s directors even said the feature on Marketplace had inspiration from Thai people, because several Thais used Facebook to sell goods, using interesting and innovative ways to apply social media to online sales,” Puttipong said.

Puttipong also met with a group of Thais who work at Facebook and with students at Stanford University. He told them that if they got the opportunity, they should return to Thailand to help because they are the country’s hopes.

“This new generation has high potential. If they receive support and opportunities, they will use their capabilities to greatly develop the country’s digital industry,” he added.

Under the agreement between Washington and Beijing, China will buy US products amounting to not less than $200 billion (Bt6 trillion) within two years, the items being oil seeds, beef, pork, chicken, seafood, and animal feed. This is expected to have an impact on Thai agricultural exports.

However, Swine Raisers Association president Surachai Sutthitham said that if China purchases more pork from the US, it will have some impact on Thailand but probably not much. Due to the current swine fever in China, there was still an opportunity to sell more live Thai pigs to the Asian giant. This could be done by exporting not more than 1,000 pigs per day over the course of 2-3 weeks by boat through Chiang Rai’s Chiang Saen checkpoint to China’s southern Yunnan province.

“The pork that we export to China is from standard farms which are free from Foot and Mouth Disease and certified by the Department of Livestock Development. If China imports more from the United States, it probably won’t affect us much, because Chinese consumption is still high,” Surachai felt.

But Thai Broiler Processing Exporters Association manager Kukrit Arepagorn said that on November 14 China had lifted its ban on poultry imports from the US and 172 poultry processing plants in that country have been certified by China, so this may affect Thai exports.

“African Swine Fever has spread in China since late June, decreasing the amount of pork available and increasing demand for chickens in the country,” Kukrit said.

Exports of Thai chicken products from January to October 2019 totalled 46,000 tonnes, 99 per cent of it fresh chickens – an increase of 15,000.

“If China turns to the US for increased chicken imports, it may affect Thailand,” he said.

“However, we still have the advantage over the US for the freshness of products as we are closer to China. Most chicken products imported from Thailand are chicken feet, middle wings, and drumsticks. Chicken products imported by China from the US are mainly drumsticks and legs. But these products from the US take months to reach China. However, fluctuating market prices in China may place even Thai traders at risk of losing profit,” Kukrit added.

He said strong wind and dry leaves had helped the blaze to spread to the perimeter and mountain terrain, preventing officials from putting out the wildfire completely.

Officials are monitoring the area to keep the fire from spreading.

Some areas have no equipment to put out wildfires, and dust pollution is also a concern that national park officers must prepare for and deal with.

The blaze was started when people hunting animals ignited a fire.

At the scene, police found a sunken boat which was carrying passengers and agricultural produce from Nangphaya subdistrict to a pier 2 km away. The vessel, reportedly with 10 passengers and the helmsman on board, hit a protruding stump near the centre of reservoir. Water level at the reservoir has receded due to drought.

Six passengers were rescued while four others were still missing, including the helmsman, Prarian Aphiya (52), who was also the boat owner. Another passenger, Sunittra Noikhan (35), died in the accident.

Dozens of rescue volunteers and divers are still searching for the missing persons.

This marks a major milestone in depa’s mission to achieve 100 smart cities by 2022, following the successful pilot projects involving Phuket, Khon Kaen, Bangkok and cities in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).

“Last year, 27 cities across Thailand crafted their smart city plans to become depa’s smart city promotion zones. 2020 is going to be a year of action to promote these cities. Instead of a single city level partnership, depa is bringing with us the network of 27 cities to City Possible. In addition, it is our honour to be the first national government to join the City Possible network,” said Dr Passakon Prathombutr, Senior Executive Vice President of depa.

The focus on smart cities is a core pillar of the government’s Thailand 4.0 initiative which aims to transform Thailand into a high-income nation with vastly improved quality of life in urban centres. Many areas within Thailand’s 27 ‘candidate’ smart cities are beginning to see transformation across the seven dimensions of Smart City Thailand namely economy, mobility, energy, living, people, governance and environment.

Pioneered by Mastercard, City Possible is a partnership and co-creation programme designed to #MakeTechWorkForPeople by aligning key stakeholders to address urban issues. City Possible provides members unrivalled access to a global community of urban leaders, businesses, NGOs and academics and are regularly invited to a series of knowledge-exchange forums where participants identify common challenges, exchange learnings and establish holistic urban solutions.

“Cities around the world face similar challenges but they are too often solving the issues in isolation. City Possible connects cities with insights and resources from cities around the world which accelerates progress and enables smart governance,” said Miguel Gamiño Jr, Executive Vice President/ Global Cities, Mastercard.

“Mastercard is thrilled to empower depa’s city leaders with global best practices as they seek to launch a ‘Chief Smart City Officer’ certification programme to enable local smart city efforts,” he added.

“In Thailand, Mastercard is keen to explore the possible implementation of City Key, a platform launched in partnership with the City of Honolulu, which combines a universal municipal identification with payments functionality, helping cities engage residents more inclusively and cost-effectively. City Key was a direct result of the collaboration and co-creation activities facilitated by City Possible,” said Julienne Loh, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Partnerships/Asia Pacific, Mastercard.

As one of the 27 cities, Yala City located in the southernmost province of Thailand is starting to benefit from the mayor’s decision to transform the municipality into a smart city. “Inspired by Honolulu’s City Key, Yala sees digitisation as a powerful way to bring inclusive solutions to communities. When the people of Yala feel proud of the city they live in, it will help attract more residents, businesses and tourists,” said Pongsak Yingchoncharoen, mayor of Yala.

The key to success is ensuring a continuous momentum. Next, depa will partner with Mastercard to bring Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) expertise to the smart cities – an initiative led by Mastercard’s Government Engagement unit.

Smart cities projects require capital investment to implement. PPPs are a proven way to leverage private sector funding and expertise in the service of public objectives. “Driving alignment across stakeholders and obtaining investment often stalls many innovative city projects. Mastercard envisions that partnering with depa to provide PPP training and project development support to Thai cities will help them overcome these hurdles and turn their smart city dreams into reality,” said Gerald Sun, Vice President, Government Engagement, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.

In mid-2020, depa will be hosting a World Smart City Showcase, inviting City Possible members to showcase their ‘smart city’ best practices. All Thai smart cities will be invited to take centre-stage and share their transformation journeys while exploring new solutions and partnerships.

In 2019, assets with high yields comprised world equities (18.38 per cent), absolute return funds (13.33 per cent), private equities (6.38 per cent) and real estate (6.16 per cent), while Thai bonds and equity instruments provided 4.38 per cent and 2.36 per cent of returns, respectively, he said.

Vithai said the GPF would continue to provide compensation to its members this year.

The GPF estimates that the lower tension in the trade war between the United States and China and world money market liquidity, which remains high, would help the global economy expand more than in the previous year, despite the tensions in the Middle East and the US presidential election, that will be held in November.

Vitai expects Thailand’s economic and investment situation to continue to expand due to the improvement in domestic consumption, thanks to the government’s economic stimulus measures.

He said that after a new Budget Act is approved, the government should be able to issue more similar measures to stimulate the economy and increase consumption.

The GPF estimates that the Thai economy in 2020 will expand around 2.8-3.0 per cent, with inflation at 1 per cent.