He said that he would monitor the Cabinet’s performance for an unspecified period before making an evaluation.

OPEC secretary-general Attapon Truektrong announced on Thursday (November 28) that the school’s current director and manager have been given seven days to present documentation for all property purchased with college funds.

An administration committee will meet on Friday to further discuss the issue.

Attapon said his office had found “suspicious behaviour” in the management of the school budget that would be investigated.

Those who’d pushed for the OPEC takeover expressed gratitude and relief on hearing the announcement and urged the office to ensure no one gains personally from the college budget.

Their campaign began as a show of support for former school director Supakit Jitklongsap and former manager Watcharapong Apinyanurangsee and an appeal for an investigation into the Church of Christ in Thailand’s management of the college.

The 23 secondary students who participated got a warm welcome home at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Thursday (November 28) from their parents and teachers and Jirachet Siriphanich and Pitchayapha Hongthongsong of the Office of the Basic Education Commission.

Jirachet said the students from all over Thailand performed very well in the first-of-its-kind competition involving hundreds of Korean and Southeast Asian youngsters.

She noted that all the students displayed ample spirit and determination, as indicated by the fact that just 0.01 or 0.02 points separated the final scores.

The meeting was attended by other MRC members, namely Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and the countries providing support to projects involving the Mekong River, including Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, US, EU, and Japan.

Participants discussed the development of a strategy to manage drought risks over the five-year period 2020 to 2025. “Japan will support the project financially from next year, which will look at the cause of drought in the Mekong region,” Somkiat said,

The strategy will encompass five key areas, namely, drought index, forecasting and early warning of drought, officer’s core competency development, remedial measures, and information sharing.

The ONWR will preside over the MRC’s joint committee and promote the sharing of information and collaboration in defining measures to cope with the drought.

“Predictions show that the area will suffer severe drought over the next four or five months and this will also affect Thailand’s northeast. The MRC countries, including Thailand, have issued measures to control water consumption to ensure they will be sufficient water during this period,” he added.

The countries supporting the MRC operation requested MRC members to approve principles and guidelines to evaluate and reduce cross-border environmental impacts in accordance with international standards, as well as draw up a strategy for the Mekong River region from 2020 to 2030.

They also agreed to promote a joint action plan for two projects that have already passed the Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA) stage, namely Pak Beng and Pak Lay dams in Laos.

Associate Professor Jiraporn Limpananont said she was “unwilling” to accept the committee’s resolution and disputed the chairman’s claim that members were unanimous in their decision.

“I have always insisted on banning all three substances and wanted the resolution of October 22 confirmed,” Jiraporn wrote, earning multiple indications of support from online followers.

The committee on Wednesday dropped its call for a December 1 ban on paraquat, chlorpyrifos and glyphosate, postponing the ban on the first two until next June 1 and allowing continued, controlled use of the third.

Jiraporn objected to suggestions that the use of glyphosate poses no threat to health.

“Other committee members and I discussed its negative effects on health and unmanageable risks to consumers,” she said. “Plenty of studies have found that it contaminates the environment, vegetables and fruit and human breast milk.”

According to Kalin Sarasin, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thailand has many interesting products, but the packaging is not beautiful or eye-catching enough to draw customers’ attention.

“This workshop will engage Thai entrepreneurs to make the products more attractive in order to gain attention from customers,” he said. “We expect that they will be able to increase the sales and will evaluate the success of the project further.”

Director-general of the Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP), Somdet Susomboon added that lifestyle products are an important component of the export market and generate revenue for Thailand.

“Lifestyle products exports this year are valued at US$12.35 billion, up by 7.03 per cent from the previous year, accounting for 4 per cent of the total export value,” he said. “Japan is the Thailand’s second-largest lifestyle products export market following the US, with an export value from January to October this year of more than US$1.15 billion.”

Jetro president Atsushi Taketani said the workshop they will use the guidelines for the development of Okage Yokocho area in Mie Prefecture to provide know-how for Thai entrepreneurs.

The grower is the province’s former ex-deputy governor Wiradej Somwan and he credits the health of his luscious fruit to the sufficiency philosophy of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great (King Rama IX), which he studied in depth along with his wife to make his dream of growing grapes when he retired come true.

The Sufficiency Economy is a philosophy based on the fundamental principle of Thai culture. It is a method of development that uses knowledge and virtue as guidelines in living. Significantly, there must be intelligence and perseverance which will lead to real happiness in leading one’s life. The philosophy is built on three pillars of the philosophy

– Moderation: Sufficiency at a level of not doing something too little or too much at the expense of oneself or others.

– Reasonableness: The decision concerning the level of sufficiency must be made rationally with consideration of the factors involved and careful anticipation of the outcomes that may be expected from such action.

– Risk Management: The preparation to cope with the likely impact and changes in various aspects by considering the probability of future situations.

Most Thais associate the Sufficiency Economy with the New Theory, which applies the philosophy to the agricultural sector. King Bhumibol initiated this theory to help Thai farmers suffering from the impacts of economic crisis, natural disasters and other unproductive natural conditions. He believed that if the farmers acted with due consideration based on knowledge of past price fluctuations of agricultural commodities, they would understand how risky it is to concentrate all one’s resources in such commodities and expect large profits. And if they adopted the principle of self-immunity, they would prepare for price changes in the market by producing enough to eat as a priority and only then think of selling any surplus.

Wiradej said that during his years of government service, he servedas a sheriff in many areas of the northern region. During his posting to Samoeng, Chiang Mai, he went to the Pangda Royal Project and witnessed the growing of seedless grapes. He made the decision there and then that when he retired, he would tend a small vineyard to welcome friends to chat with each other. And when he retired from his last position as Permanent Secretary of Lampang Province, he went ahead with his plan.

The grapes, the seedlings for which came from the Pangda Royal Project, are called “Beauty seedless” and are oval, medium-sized and a rich purple-black. They grow in large bunches and are tasty, sweet and crispy. In his first season, he planted only 15 plants, but the result was better than expected so he added a further 6 though no more because grapes are fruits that need special care. He wants to put his best efforts into his vineyard even though he was not growing for profit but to relax, get some exercise, and live a happy life welcoming friends and visitors to chat and exchange views and life experiences. Word spread and today tourists stop off at Baan Suan Dok almost every day to explore, buy some grapes and chat. But the vineyard is not just a tourist attraction, it is also a learning centre for anyone interested in finding out more about grapes and the late King’s philosophy.

“The project is a collaboration between the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) and the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), and is designed to teach coding and programming to students to familiarise them with artificial intelligence technology,” he said. “The project also further expands the ‘Coding at School for Teacher’ or ‘KruKid Contest’ initiative which aims to boost teachers’ abilities in teaching coding and AI related topics.”

The ‘KidBright AIBot’, Asean’s first robot that combines the teaching of block coding and AI technology, was also introduced at the conference. “This robot is the first step towards the Ministry’s policy to promote Thailand as an AI nation,” he said. “Simplifying the AI subjects to improve students’ understanding and visualization will help boost efficiency in producing personnel equipped with skills in AI technology, as well as creating a platform for AI entrepreneurs to develop their products with added economic value and variety of applications.”

NSTDA president Narong Sirilertworakul added that the KidBright project is having a positive effect on several industrial sectors. “In 2019 the project stimulated the manufacturing of AI circuit boards with more than 10,000 components, and has generated products for AI teaching kits such as IKB-1, GoGo Bright and KB-IDE,” he said. “Two business organisations, namely Innovative Experiment and Thai Dot Com already applied to use KidBright boards for commercial use.”

“The traces look like caterpillar tractors running back and forth,” said one of the patrol team. “We are fairly sure it is a leatherback laying her second batch of eggs of this year.”

The patrol team led experts to inspect the area and decide whether it is necessary to move the turtle eggs to the safe zone.

Deputy director general of the Marine and Coastal Resources Department, Sophon Thongdee monitored the first nest at Khao Lampi-Hat Thai Mueang National Park and opened the surveillance centre with the cooperation of several authorities and local villagers.

“We have prepared the area for the turtle to dig up to three nests and we, installed closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, thermometres, and information signs to those who want to study the location,” he said.

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