Governor goes into cyberspace

PHUKET: The Governor of Phuket, Pongpayome Vasaputi, now has his own email address for people who wish to make suggestions to him. He has also launched the provincial government’s new website at https://www.phuket.go.th, in line with a Ministry of Interior policy to have every province set up a presence on the Internet. The website, which is currently in Thai only but which, the governor says, will soon be available in English as well, contains information about projects and actions being undertaken by the Governor’s Office, a history of the Provincial Hall, Phuket statistics, festivals, tourist attractions, government tender notices and other information for those needing to deal with branches of the provincial government. “I think this will be good for people who want to contact the local government because sometimes Thai people give them erroneous information, telling them, for example, that they have to pay money to get certain documents from the government,” Gov Pongpayome explained. He has requested every government office in Phuket to supply details of their duties, responsibilities, procedures and fees to his office so that these may be added to the website. “Eventually, I should like to see each individual government office having its own website. This would be good for disseminating information, and would be in line with Phuket’s International City plans,” Gov Pongpayome added. Recommendations to the Governor may be emailed to pongpayome@e-mail.in.th or to the Governor’s Office email address at phuket@moi.go.th