THE MAYOR of Mae Sot Municipality has said it will be necessary to develop human resources and trade simultaneously in Tak province, now a designated special economic zone

“Changes are happening now. We have to make preparations,” Mayor Terdkiat Chinsoranan said at a seminar discussing how to prepare labour for Mae Sot district’s burgeoning economy.

According to Tak Deputy Governor Sutta Saiwanich, the Mae Sot area is a major trading post connecting the region’s east and west.

Terdkiat said he expected trade volumes in his area to rise from Bt80 billion a year to Bt100 billion in the near future. He said investors from several countries, particularly South Korea, had already expressed interest in investing in the province, “so we need to prepare both infrastructure and human resources”.

At the same seminar, Mae Sot Technical College deputy director Yodpetch Praenoi said the government hoped to increase the number of vocational graduates but had not provided an adequate budget for the vocational-education sector.

“My college gets a budget of Bt8,500 to hire an additional teacher per month. But how can we recruit such a teacher given that a person with proper qualifications will get at least Bt15,000 a month elsewhere?” he said, adding that the budget for equipment was inadequate, which caused problems.

Wittaya Manterm, another deputy director at the same institute, said vocational education required specialised equipment for teaching and learning. “We can’t use just paper,” he said.

He said old technology and tools would not suffice because graduates had to be prepared to enter real working environments.

Somsak Kaweerat, from the Tak Chamber of Commerce, said people needed determination to adapt and prove they were up to the job, including improving their linguistic skills. “I have found out that Karen children at evacuation centres can speak four to five languages. But Thai children are fluent in only Thai,” he added.

Quality Learning Foundation (QLF) executive assistant manager Patanapong Sukmadan cited the latest survey on the Thai human capital index, which stated that Thailand must equip students and workers in labour-intensive sectors with essential skills.

It also stated that people in vocational education would be key to the country’s future because they would be main human resource for economic development.

“It’s necessary to boost vocational students’ skills including language. If we don’t start now, more Thai youths will be unemployed. The gap between formal and vocational education must be narrowed and the formal-education students must learn necessary vocational skills.”

2m workers over 5 years

Patanapong said the QLF and the Office of Basic Education Commission had organised vocational education programmes in 10 pilot provinces to support education reform and prepare the country’s labour force in line with Thailand 4.0 industrial strategy and area-based education reform.

Thailand will need to add as many as 2 million vocational skilled labourers in five years, the QLF study found.

Patanapong said Tak required 4,140 skilled workers added per year but could produce only 1,656, so provincial officials aimed to increase vocational-skilled manpower by 45 per cent in the future.

“We are in the process of boosting anthocynanin in our strawberries. The prospect is so good,” said Narongchai Pipattanawong, the marketing director of the Royal Project Foundation.

Anthocyanin has antioxidant and anti-carcinogenic properties. “We expect satisfactory results within the next two years,” he said.

He said that while some Italian strawberry varieties contain a significant amount of anthocynanin, they did not grow well in Thailand’s weather conditions.

As a result, the Royal Projects Foundation and the Thai Research Fund (TRF) have jointly funded the research project, which is being conducted by one Naresuan University’s doctorate candidates, to develop a strawberry variety that will contain a relatively high amount of anthocynanin and also blossom well in Thailand.

Asst Prof Dr Peerasak Chaiprasart, who heads the university’s Centre of Excellence in Post-harvest Technology, is the researcher’s adviser.

“We have already come up with the strawberry variety that contains the desirable qualities, but we are still experimenting with it and can’t disclose details yet,” he said.

Still, he was proud to say that this variety would deliver 100 milligrams of anthocyanin per strawberry. “With such an amount, our strawberry will be able to combat cancers,” Peerasak said.

Assoc Prof Prasert Pavasant, PhD director of the Research and Researchers for Industries programme at the TRF, said the ongoing research was very successful.

According to Peerasak, the new strawberry variety has been crossbred from six varieties including the Phrarachatan 80,50, 70 and 72.

Many strawberry varieties in Thailand are in the Phrarachatan line, which was developed in response to an initiative by the HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

In a bid to stop opium growing and mobile plantations among hilltribe people in the North, the late King recommended that they try growing strawberries instead.

“He had kindly supported strawberry-variety research and development. So, new varieties from researches are known as Phrarachatan,” Narongchai said.

The first variety of the line is known as Phrarachatan 16. The last strawberry variety named by Rama IX, who passed away on October 13, is Phrarachatan 88.

Yuttana Bamrungkhiri, a Hmong-ethnic farmer in Phetchabun’s Khao Kho district, has grown Phrarachatan 80 to attract tourists during the past five years. “It generates profits of Bt350,000 over the five-month strawberry-blossoming period,” he said.

He said he allowed tourists to wander around his strawberry plantation and pick fresh fruit.

“Many other locals have also opened their strawberry farms to tourists,” the 56-year-old farmer said.

Yuttana feels grateful to the late King for caring about hilltribe people’s wellbeing.

“Thanks to him, we don’t have to stick with opium growing, which is illegal,” Yuttana said. “We feel particularly grateful because he loved his people including us, the hilltribe ones.”

The initial probe found that the “Flight of the Gibbon” tour was operating without a tourism business licence.

District chief Pattaraporn Laijud yesterday led police and related officials to inspect the facility and its documents.

She informed the business about the suspension of its operations. The results of the investigation will be submitted to the provincial governor.

The Provincial Police Region 5 acting deputy chief, Maj-General Pithaya Sirirak, said police would determine if the incident – in which two adults in their 40s were also seriously injured – was caused by the recklessness of staff.

He believes the accident would not have occurred if staff had followed the required steps.

He said the injured tourists were covered by personal travel insurance policies and the zip-line operator had accident insurance.

Pithaya said relevant agencies would probe whether the business had a tourism business licence and whether the leased land it was located on had encroached on forestland.

The Forest Resource Management Office 1 (Chiang Mai) is checking with the Land Department because the leased land appears to be a fertile forest.

It is understood that the Flight of the Gibbon tour has 31 stations covering five kilometres, with each station handling up to 10 visitors at a time with the average zip-line speed of 20.40km per hour.

“I’m going full steam ahead with the suit against the Anti-Money Laundering Office [AMLO] and its former secretary-general Sihanart Prayoonrat,” said Eric Levine, founder of California Fitness clubs and its branch here, CAWOW.

“It should be a lesson to AMLO and its officers not to make false and damaging public statements about citizens. It will reaffirm to them that citizens are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that it is only a court of law that can pass judgement.”

Sihanart is now an adviser to the AMLO.

In a recent hearing at the Criminal Court in Bangkok for a lawsuit filed by Levine for Bt100 million against AMLO and its officers for defamation, AMLO did a surprise about-face on its position in regard to public remarks made by Sihanart, alleging improper payments and fund transfers at the firm.

AMLO representatives admitted to the court that they accept the findings of specialist forensic investigators from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who reported that they had not found any evidence of wrongdoing by CAWOW or its top executives, according to a statement Levine sent to the media.

The representatives also accepted the audits of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Jaiyos and PriceWaterhouse Coopers, which had confirmed the transactions of CAWOW to be correct and without irregularity, the statement said.

Levine said: “The former secretary-general’s unsubstantiated remarks at a press conference about my personal and professional affairs were extremely damaging to me, affecting my reputation and my worldwide business.

“He had the evidence from the SEC as well as audits of globally reputable firms. He had also been told by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) that they would not conduct any further investigation of CAWOW, as had been requested. And yet, he called a press conference to make the allegations,” Levine said.

He said he and CAWOW officers had offered full cooperation for any investigation, but despite the allegations, AMLO had never contacted him, or any CAWOW directors, or the company’s chief financial officer in the four years since the allegations were made.

Meanwhile, DSI Special Case Administration Centre director Woranan Srilam confirmed that the agency ended their probe into CAWOW in 2013 after investigators did not find factors indicating public fraud or a pyramid scheme. He said the investigation found the firm had operated real business but its outcome was not good and it had reduced its branches.

As of press time, the AMLO could not be reached for comment on this matter.

The discovery was made by a jet-ski driver who raised the alarm. The dead man’s throat had been slit.

Muang Pattaya Police Station superintendent Pol Colonel Apichai Krobphetch called an urgent meeting yesterday morning to discuss the case, which police now expect will become a murder investigation, according to deputy inspector Pol Captain Wattana Pradit. They have so far been unable to establish the man’s name or nationality.

Officers were dispatched to the Ban Koh Larn area to gather information while a scuba team from the Sawang Boriboon Foundation and police returned to the scene to search for evidence.

The 33-year-old Cambodian jet-ski driver who found the body told police he was circling around the area to warn tourist clients against riding in the rocky area of the beach. When he did a U-turn towards the beach, he spotted the body floating in the water.

As the search for the two workers, Prai Khanoonram, 38, and Boonjaeng Lesla-ong, 46, continued yesterday, rescuers requested the use of military sonar cameras to aid the operation, while relatives anxiously awaited for news of their loved ones.

City officials and engineering experts met yesterday to discuss the situation.

Council of Engineers secretary-general Amorn Pimanmas said that since the building on Sukhumvit Soi 87 was higher than three storeys, the demolition job needed to be supervised by engineers.

He said because the building was a flat-slab structure with more beams than pillars and required slings to hold parts of the structure in place and handle its weight, the failure to thoroughly study the structure before its demolition could be problematic.

Amorn said that tearing down the building required a proper collapse-preventing brace system but the initial inspection found the demolition had used an incorrect brace system.

He said experts would look at the steps taken and the tools used in the demolition as well as launch an ethical probe against those involved in the job.

The permanent secretary for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, Paparut Dardarananda, said the urgent mission was to find the missing workers while ensuring rescuers’ safety because a building next to the site had been affected by the demolition and could collapse.

With slings being used to hold structures in place, rescuers yesterday shifted from using a crane to remove the toppled concrete slabs to drilling through one slab at a time and slipping a camera through the holes to search for the workers. The drilling was done at spots identified by sniffer dogs.

“From now on, the BMA will get involved more in ensuring the building demolition companies’ professional practices, as problems that have led to tragedies might stem from the contractors’ inexperience or a misunderstanding,” he added.

Thanes Weerasiri, acting president of the Engineering Institute of Thailand, said the institute would set up a volunteer engineering unit to aid related agencies in providing knowledge on how to best aid people trapped in collapsed buildings so rescuers could identify unsafe spots.

National security agencies have ordered a rethink on the strategy to search Dhammakaya Temple for fugitive former abbot Phra Dhamma-chayo, a source at the Justice Ministry said yesterday.

Authorities would take a step back and examine “weak points” in the plan before proceeding, the source said. An initial four-day search warrant for the temple in Pathum Thani’s Klong Luang district expired on Friday.

The change of tack partially followed a report that some “extremist” disciples and monks had allegedly prepared a plan to harm themselves so that images of “bloodstained robes and clothing” could be disseminated through social media in the hope of attracting global media attention to any raid, the source said.

Yesterday, Dhammakaya Temple’s media relations officer Phra Sanitwong Wuttiwangso dismissed claims of such an extreme plan of action as untrue.

The source said all agencies had information that Phra Dhammachayo, who is being sought over money-laundering charges linked to the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative embezzlement case and other land-encroachment cases, was still inside the temple.

The fact that the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) failed to act on the first search warrant would not affect its application for another, the source said. National security agencies had deemed the risk of clashes too high with a large number of people being mobilised to the temple compound.

One of the “weak points” the authorities wanted to improve on was information confidentiality, because as soon as a search warrant is approved, the temple mobilises people to resist the operation. A successful raid would require an element of surprise, the source said.

In the meantime, officials would proceed with legal action and apply for arrest warrants against leading protesters and the temple’s acting abbot. The acting abbot is accused of harbouring a fugitive and refusing to turn him in to face justice, the source said.

Meanwhile, a DSI source said the agency’s drones which last week surveyed the temple’s various zones and personnel did not capture any image of Phra Dhammachayo.

Earlier reports said monks and disciples claimed they hadn’t seen the wanted former abbot in person for months.

At 4pm yesterday, Klong Luang Police Station inspector Pol Lt-Colonel Jirachote Sripattarapa posted a letter to the temple’s seventh entrance demanding that its executives hand over Phra Dhammachayo and Ongart Thamnita, the spokesman for followers of Dhammakaya Temple, to police within seven days.

The letter stated that Phra Dhammachayo was wanted under an arrest warrant from Nakhon Ratchasima court over land encroachment charges and Ongart was wanted, under a Thanyaburi court warrant, over a libel charge and related offences. If the temple administrators failed to do so, they would be held accountable for neglect of duty and harbouring fugitives.

Less than an hour earlier, another team of police and local administrators posted notices of evidence around the three-metre-tall temple fence alleging it had been constructed illegally.

Temple lawyer Thatchanon Pornbaiyoke said the Building Control Act 2007 did not require religious buildings to seek permission but to merely notify the local bodies about their construction plans.

The shake-up has seen seven current members given new roles, the return of a former minister, plus four newcomers.

The new members of the Cabinet are scheduled to have an audience with His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn tomorrow for the swearing-in ceremony, according to Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, the newly appointed Justice minister who formerly served as a PM’s Office minister.

The four new Cabinet members are Chutima Bunyapraphasara named Deputy Agriculture and Cooperative Minister, Pichit Akrathit appointed Deputy Transport Minister, Sontirat Sontijirawong to be the new Deputy Commerce Minister, plus Veerasak Futragul, who was appointed as Deputy Foreign Minister. Meanwhile, Uttama Savanayana, the former ICT minister, is back as Industry Minister.

Pichai Naripthapan, a former Energy minister, criticised the reshuffle as ineffective. He said the reshuffle did not recruit new officers – most were current Cabinet members who were relocated. And he said some Cabinet members lacked experience related to their new positions, so they would not be able to solve ongoing problems, especially the economic crisis.

“Even the current officers [ministers and deputy ministers] who are familiar and have expertise in the work of each ministry cannot effectively solve the problems, which has triggered criticism among the public. The new faces who are seen in the reshuffle lack experience and cannot work effectively,” the Pheu Thai politician said.

Pichai also voiced concern over the ongoing economic “crisis”, saying the reshuffle would not help to draw foreign investment back, due to ineffective administration of the government’s economic team leader. The country, he claimed, would continue to be in crisis for years – until a return to democracy.

Meanwhile, Varong Dejkitvikrom, a former Democrat MP for Phitsanulok, commended Chutima, 60, who he said was well qualified and deserved to be the new Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister.

Varong said Chutima, a former permanent secretary at the Commerce Ministry, played an important role in giving crucial testimony in the rice scheme case against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

“Before the 60-year-old retired, she also signed an administrative order, on behalf of Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn, to seek compensation from politicians and officers involved in the fraud-stricken scheme for causing damage to the state,” he said.

“She is honest and effective.”

Varong also called on the new deputy minister to launch a policy that would help strengthen farmers’ capacity to bargain after the rice price plummeted dramatically this year.

Meanwhile, Chaiyan Chaiyaporn, a noted political science expert at Chulalongkorn University, said the reshuffle was “a good sign” for the democratic transition, given the increased number of civilians drawn to join the Cabinet.

“According to transition theory, moving toward to democracy, a military government will recruit more and more civilians to the administration. It is called a civil-military relationship,” said the scholar who declined to comment on the four new people appointed to the Cabinet.

Chaiyan told The Nation the four new appointees were all civilians. Compared to the prime minister’s initial Cabinet, which was full of military officers, the current ratio of military and civilian showed a decrease, he said.

In a related development, new Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana said he had not yet heard of any urgent tasks from the premier. But he said the 12 “new” Cabinet members were due to have an audience with His Majesty the King on Monday and the first meeting of the new Cabinet would be held on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, people in the IT sector yesterday welcomed the appointment of a new minister for the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. They also had some suggestions for the new minister.

Thanachart Numnonda, director of IMC Institute, a Thai-based technology training and research firm, and president of the Association of Thailand ICT Industry, said Pichet Durongkaveroj was a good choice as the Minister of Digital Economy and Society, as he had a good understanding of the ICT industry plus a long track record of experience in science, technology, and innovation.

He was expected to be a proactive minister as he did a lot when he was Science and Technology minister.

The only concern was about officials at the Digital Economy Ministry, as many lacked understanding and may not be keen on digital technology. So, that may hinder the minister’s capacity to implement policies, he said.

“The minister needs to set up teams, maybe special teams, or integrate or collaborate with other organisations to drive the policy execution effectively. Business is confident in the Digital Economy Ministry but not confident in the team – the ministry’s officers,” Thanachart said.

Meanwhile, Pawoot Pongvitay-apanu, president of Thai E-Commerce Association and founder and chief executive officer of Tarad.com, said he expected that Digital Economy Minister to play a role as the chief

technology officer overseeing the country’s technology and innovation framework, and the need to work with the other ministries and organisations.

He said Pichet had experience as a minister, plus understood technology well, as he was an expert in science and innovation. So, that might mean more collaboration with the Science and Technology Ministry, Pawoot said.

“We hope to see collaboration between the Digital Economy Ministry and other ministries to avoid duplicated tasks and investment in state entities. We hope the new minister will manipulate the country’s ICT roadmap as well,” Pawoot said.

The Prayut Chan-o-cha government’s economic team led by Deputy Premier Somkid Jatusripitak has consolidated its vast powers in managing the economy with additional portfolios in the new Cabinet line-up.

Contrary to previous speculation that Somkid’s team would be downsized or sidelined in the latest reshuffle, the new line-up, handpicked by the economic czar, includes more ministers and deputy ministers for the industry, commerce, agriculture and transport portfolios.

The new members of the Cabinet are scheduled to have an audience with His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn tomorrow for the swearing-in ceremony, according to Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, the newly appointed justice minister who formerly served as a PM’s Office minister.

Uttama Savanayana has been appointed industry minister, Sontirat Sonthijirawong is the new deputy commerce minister, Pichit Akrathit has been named deputy transport minister and Chutima Bunyapraphasara is deputy agriculture minister.

In order to maintain the country’s gross domestic product growth at around 3 to 3.5 per cent per annum, Somkid and his team will have to focus more on revitalising the local economy because global economic factors are not yet favourable for Thai exports.

Thai exports are forecast to see flat growth for the whole of 2016 so the government has turned to mega-infrastructure projects, domestic consumption, and border trade to drive the local economy.

Based on the new Cabinet line-up, Somkid will have more power to strengthen the economy amid growing complaints from low-income earners and businesses that the

military-led government is not yet doing a good job on the economic front.

Over the past year, the government has also pushed ahead with its digital economy agenda with Pichet Durongkaveroj becoming the first minister of the recently established Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.

The new ministry replaces the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry.

Former ICT minister Uttama was earlier tipped to head the new ministry. However, he has now been given charge of the industry ministry, while Sonthirat, previously an adviser to the agriculture and industry ministries, was named deputy commerce minister.

Chutima, the new deputy agriculture minister, was the permanent secretary of commerce, while Pichit Akrathit was chairman of board of the State Railway of Thailand and is an expert on the capital market.

Pichit is regarded as the right-hand man of Somkid, who had previously assigned him to clean up SRT’s financial mess including its mounting debt.

Pichit is chairman of the Asia Wealth Securities board of directors and former president of MFC Asset Management Co Ltd, the country’s first asset management firm with Bt200 billion in assets under management

FREEDOM OF expression and right to access information will be seriously curbed by the new Computer Crime Act, which was enacted yesterday, according to legal and rights experts.

Yingcheep Atchanont of iLaw, a network of legal experts, said: “There will be wider and further limits on people’s freedom due to the enactment of amendments to the Computer Crime Act (BE 2550), especially with regard to information distribution on the Internet.”

Activists and those who disagree with the government’s policies, will be most affected as Article 14 of the law states that anyone who posts anything wrongfully will face up to five years in jail and/or a fine of up to Bt100,000.

“The definition of ‘wrongful’ information is very wide, so anyone who opposes the government may be violating the new law. Moreover, people who share the information and website owners will also be punished with the same penalties,” he said.

“In general, the liberty of all people will be limited, as the websites which authorities think are harmful to national stability and the morality of people, will be shut down and people will have less freedom on the Internet.”

Meanwhile, Thai Netizen Network leader Sarinee Achavanuntakul said the Act was very ambigious. “The law is very vague on what is right and what is wrong, so the Internet will be filled with fear as anyone could be arrested for what they do on the Internet.

“According to police, there are about 1,400 cases pending under the current version of the Computer Crime Act and no one knows if there will be many more cases. I would like to ask the NLA to clarify the law and get rid of the ambiguities to solve the problems.”

Amnesty International Thailand director Piyanuch Kosot said that as her organisation was one that campaigned against the new law, she wanted to thank the 360,000 people who signed the petition objecting to it, despite the bid ending in failure.

“We are very disappointed that the NLA approved this law. The Computer Crime Act should protect the people, but many amendments in this law open room for even greater human rights violation,” Piyanuch said. “Not only us, but 360,000 people and the world community are watching the NLA closely and we will keep monitoring enforcement of the law and changes to the law in the future.”

The controversial amendments to the law were passed yesterday by the NLA with 168 votes and five abstentions. In the final reading, legislators decided to increase the number of online content screening committee members from five to nine.

The amendment will be effective after royal endorsement.

Chatchawan Suksomchit, head of the NLA committee on the amendment, said the new law had no relation to the so-called single gateway of internet connections as worried by some members of the public.

The NLA pushed for the new law despite strong criticism that it was a threat to human rights, freedom of expression and privacy.

Over 360,000 Internet users on an online platform Change.org signed a petition against the amendment.

Arthit Suriyawongkul, a leader of Thai Netizen Network, said rights groups would continue to oppose the law by calling for amendments in line with human rights principles. Rights groups would oppose any cyber laws that threatened freedom of expression.

During five hours of debate on the third reading of the law, lawmakers such as Wallop Tangkananurak said the previous draft would have five |committee members – three from the public sector and two from private sector or civil society. This would allow the committee to convene with only three members if non-government members were not present, making it a complete executive-branch authority to screen online content, he said.

As a result, the number of committee members was increased to nine members to include human rights advocates as well as information technology and other relevant experts.

With regard to the controversial Article 14, they agreed to include a clause on offences excluded as defamation as stipulated in the criminal code.

Chatchawan Suksomchit, head of the NLA panel on the amendment, said the law was intended to prevent online scamming. The NLA panel argued that Article 20, which gives the authority to remove immoral online content, should be handled by courts. While immoral and other undesirable content will be removed, Internet users posting the content will not be charged.