Paiboon promises a perfect Phuket
WICHIT: Paiboon Upatising and his team of Khon Baan Rao councilors yesterday held a press conference to thank their supporters and outline their policies at K. Paiboon’s office at the Morning Star Villa housing estate, one of the many projects he has developed under the Phuket Villa name.
K. Paiboon was voted president of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) on Sunday in a landslide victory over former OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich Tephabutr, who campaigned under the banner of the Democrat Party.
Although the election results have yet to be made official by the Election Commission in Bangkok, K. Paiboon is expected to take office without further opposition.
“We will coordinate with local administration organizations to deliver better service to the people. Today we are very proud of the trust the Phuket people have placed in us, especially given the scale of the opposition we were up against,” K. Paiboon said.
Under the control of Khon Baan Rao, the OrBorJor will set up a center to accept requests for action or complaints from all island residents, he said.
“We will rush to solve problems, including those with water supply, traffic and roadworks, education and the teacher shortage,” he said.
“We are planning to put the right people into the right jobs and the council will now have to accept it. People have to change their outlook, because the new OrBorJor members will be the representatives of people,” he said.
“From now on the OrBorJor president will work for the people, not the other way around,” he said.
K. Paiboon also vowed to make OrBorJor budget matters fully transparent and open to public review.
Asked about the OrBorJor‘s plan to redevelop the long-abandoned Phya Thai Hospital in Phuket City and operate it as a public organization under provincial administration, K. Paiboon said the project would first be placed under thorough budgetary review because the former administration had already invested 500 million baht in it.
He promised to continue good projects initiated by K. Anchalee’s administration, but in a more “cost-effective manner”.
As for the coordinating efforts with local administrative bodies, he said, “We will work to support them, not replace them.”
K. Paiboon also promised to better coordinate the efforts of local bodies to address pressing issues affecting the entire island, such as the need for better waste-management strategies and a second incinerator, and to help solve the island’s garbage crisis.
Known as a fiscal conservative, K. Paiboon said he would spend next year’s fiscal budget of an anticipated 600 million baht in a way that would best benefit island residents.
