Phuket to have new governor

PHUKET: The Governor of Phuket for the past two years, Chadej Insawang, will move on October 1 to a new post as Governor of Kanchanaburi Province, on the Thai-Burmese border, as part of a nationwide reshuffling of 56 governors and senior staff of the Ministry of Interior. He will be replaced by Charnchai Soontorramat, currently one of two vice-governors of Nonthaburi Province, adjacent to Bangkok. Khun Charnchai, who is 52, is a native of Nakhon Sri Thammarat. The move takes Khun Chadej from Thailand’s second-smallest province to its third-largest – Kanchanaburi covers an area of 19,483 square kilometers, compared with Phuket’s 543. It has a population of 766,549, more than three times that of Phuket. His reassignment comes earlier than might have been expected; governors normally move once every four years, although exceptions are not unusual when government policy requires.