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- Phuket News
MICE tourism gets a boost
PHUKET: The Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) has launched its “Think Meeting, Think Phuket” discounted air fares and hotel rates promotion in a bid to boost the number of MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions) travelers to the island.The aim of the promotion, which will end on October 31, is to attract an average 1,250 people a day to Phuket. Assuming…
- Phuket News
Phuket Air quietly barred from UK
LONDON: Just days before being banned from flying to the Netherlands, Phuket Air was also quietly barred from flying to the UK, it has emerged. One of its aircraft has also been seized for non-payment of landing fees at London’s Gatwick Airport.The website of the UK Department for Transport (DFT) says that “the Secretary of State has suspended the permit…
- Phuket News
Water authorities weigh options
PHUKET: Phuket Irrigation Office Project Director Watchara Arepornsiri today said that if rain does not start to replenish Phuket’s water reserves by the middle of this month, he will call in the Royal Rainmaking Project to seed clouds and make artificial rain.K. Watchara explained to the Gazette that Bang Wad reservoir currently holds 1.9 million cubic meters of water, and…
- Phuket News
Night Bazaar opening postponed by a year
PHUKET: Construction of the Phuket International Night Bazaar (PINB) has been put back by a year and the number of shops it will include has been slashed by 80%, because of the tsunami.Buildiers should have started work on the 170-rai site off Chao Fa West Rd in March, and the Bazaar should have been completed by November, ready for the…
- Phuket News
Official held in B2m aid theft case
PHUKET CITY: Police this evening arrested the Chief of the Finance Division of the Phuket Provincial Financial Office, Apichart Nooprod, as the ringleader in the theft of more than 2 million baht of tsunami aid money, which was reported missing on February 15.Apichart, from Nakhon Sri Thammarat, has denied the charge, and was tonight undergoing questioning at Phuket City Police…
- Phuket News
Evacuation practice set for April 29
PHUKET: Tourists hitting the sands of Patong Beach early next Friday morning may find themselves in for a bit of a surprise, as the province plans to conduct a tsunami evacuation drill in the area at 10 am on April 29. An “evacuation route map” and a variety of warning signs were presented Wednesday to a seminar at The Metropole…
- Phuket News
Tsunami chops OrBorJor income by 20pc
PHUKET CITY: The December 26, 2004, tsunami has chopped about 100 million baht, or 20%, off the expected revenue of Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) for fiscal 2005.OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr told the Gazette on April 8 that the organization’s initial revenue projection of 500 million baht, from business taxes and fees, has been lowered to about 400 million due to…
- Phuket News
Phuket to get provincial art gallery
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) has announced that it intends to build an art gallery for the province, after the successful opening of the “Painting Phuket, the Pearl of the Andaman” art exhibition yesterday.OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr said the art gallery would contain art and literature and artefacts relating to the history of Phuket.There could even be…
- Phuket News
US trade reps assess investment aid
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura met with US trade representatives and the head of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion (OSMEP) on Sunday to discuss ways in which the US private sector might assist in Thailand’s recovery following the December 26 tsunami. The talks focused on ways to channel private-sector investment from the US to affected businesses,…
- Phuket News
B1bn budget for three provinces
PHUKET CITY: Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi provinces will, between them, receive more than a billion baht from the government in their budgets for 2006.Phuket will receive 337 million baht, Phang Nga 335 million and Krabi 378 million – a total of 1.05 billion baht.Around 70% of the money – or 695 million baht – is earmarked for supporting the…
- Phuket News
Austria to fund health care center
PHUKET CITY: The government of Austria has pledged to spend 500,000 Euros – around 25 million baht – on establishing a health center for the fishing community of Tambon Rassada.Austria will fund the construction of the centre and provide money for staffing, too.The initial purpose of the center will be to improve the health of the fishermen and their families,…
- Phuket News
Patong tsunami warning system by end of April
PHUKET CITY: Dr Smith Thammasaroj, the chief of the investigation into the government’s handling of the December 26 tsunami disaster, has announced that three tsunami warning towers will be operational in Patong by the end of this month.Speaking at The Metropole hotel after a meeting with Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Deputy Chairman, Juthaporn Rerngronasa, TAT Region 4 Chief Suwalai…
- Phuket News
Gov calls for greater urgency in tsunami plan
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura has ordered the provincial branch of the Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM) to speed up its coastal evacuation planning and work more closely with local government bodies in order to prevent a repeat of the confusion that followed last Monday’s tsunami alert. Gov Udomsak made the call at yesterday’s monthly meeting of…
- Phuket News
V/Gov appeals for massive donations
PHUKET CITY: Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit has requested hundreds of millions of baht, along with practical support, from foreign donors, the Thai private sector and the Thai government to help Phuket recover fully from the December 26 tsunami.During a meeting at Provinical Hall on March 24, V/Gov Winai outlined several situations in which the local authorities need help in putting right damage…
- Phuket News
Pre-Songkran re-opening for aquarium
AO MAKHAM: The Phuket Aquarium will reopen to the public on April 9, after being closed for renovations and improvements for two and a half years.The management is marking the reopening by offering free admission to all on April 9 and 10.Wannakiat Tubtimsang, Director of Phuket Marine Biological Center, which runs the aquarium, told the Gazette that 81 million baht…
- Phuket News
Phuket on high alert, but no tsunami
PHUKET: Seaside towns and villages around Phuket were evacuated last night after warnings from the Meteorological Department that there was a high possibility of another tsunami hitting the island. The warnings came after a massive earthquake jolted Sumatra, just 200 kilometers from the site of the temblor that caused the tsunami on December 26 last year. That wave killed an…
- Phuket News
Patong plan takes a step forward
PATONG: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will fund a 200-million-baht project to improve road surfaces, sidewalks and drains along the beach road in Patong, it was announced yesterday.The announcement came during the third meeting of a committee set up to oversee redevelopment of Patong in the wake of the December 26 tsunami. The meeting, held at Patong Municipal offices…
- Phuket News
Tax breaks urged for movie makers
NAI YANG: Reducing taxation and slashing red tape could help revitalise the post-tsunami film industry in Phuket and surrounding provinces, a seminar heard yesterday.Delegates to the meeting, organised by the Office of Tourism Development and the Thai Film Office, were told that scenes for 441 foreign films were shot in Thailand in 2004, generating revenue of around 1.13 billion baht…
- Phuket News
THAI offers packages to boost tourism
BANGKOK: The national carrier, Thai Airways International (THAI) today announced special domestic packages offered by its Royal Orchid Holidays subsidiary aimed at kickstarting the tourism-led economies of Phuket, Krabi and Trang Provinces following the tsunami.The “Southern Sun and Sea” round-trip packages will be available for departures from Bangkok to the three southern provinces with prices pegged at 5,000 baht per…
- Phuket News
Tsunami jobless scheme extended
PHUKET CITY: With the number of people being made redundant by tsunami-hit businesses soaring, the Phuket Provincial Labor Office (PPLO) has extended its employment creation scheme that offers low-skill government work to the jobless.According to figures compiled by Phuket Social Security Office (PSSO), in January, 46 people on the island registered to say that they had been made redundant; in…
- Phuket News
Bypass project nears halfway mark
PHUKET: Motorists are asked not to be unduly alarmed by the sound of explosions as they travel along the bypass road to do their weekend shopping – it’s all part of the Government’s 111-million-baht project to widen Chalermprakiat Ror IX Rd to make for room for Phuket’s ever-growing number of vehicles. Boonyakiat Kongketyai, government engineer with the Highway Department and…
- Phuket News
ODPM officers “responsible for missing B2m’
PHUKET: The former chief of the Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM), Metha Mekarat, and several of his staff were responsible for the disappearance of more than two million baht earmarked for tsunami victims, Vice-Governor Supachai Yuwaboon announced yesterday.V/Gov Supachai has been chairing a commission set up to investigate the disappearance of the money – reported missing on February…
- Phuket News
Tsunami memorial funding cut back
PHANG NGA: The head of the Phang Nga office of the Ministry of Culture today told the Gazette that the Cabinet this week approved an initial budget of 50 million baht for construction of a 1.5-billion-baht tsunami memorial in Bang Niang.The original idea for the memorial park called for a 2-billion-baht high-tech dome off the beach at Bang Niang, a…
- Phuket News
Japanese tsunami warning plan outlined
PHUKET: Japanese seismologists have recommended that a Japanese tsunami early warning system be installed in the deep ocean and linked to beaches along the Andaman coast of Thailand that were hit by the December 26 tsunami.The Tokyo University team, led by Professor Kimiro Meguro, unveiled the proposal during a meeting today at Phuket Provincial Hall with Vice-Governor Supachai Yuvaboon.The scientists…
- Phuket News
Govt slashes Patong, Kamala rebuilding funds
PHUKET CITY: The Cabinet yesterday approved a budget of 200 million baht to rebuild Patong Beach and a further 100 million baht to rebuild Kamala Beach, together totaling less than a third of the original budgets Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkul requested.At a meeting of district chiefs and other top-ranking provincial officials, chaired by Governor Udomsak today, Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit announced…
- Phuket News
Fishing boat relief payout “nearly complete’
PHUKET: The Phuket office of the Department of Fisheries (DoF) expects to finish paying out about 46.8 million baht in aid to rebuild Phuket’s fishing fleet by the end of next week, Issara Bussayarat, Chief of the Phuket DoF office has told the Gazette.K. Issara said that 550 fishing boats registered with the Department were damaged by the December 26…
- Phuket News
B2m aid theft probe extended
PHUKET: The deadline for completion of the vice-gubernatorial investigation into the theft of more than 2 million baht of tsunami aid money has been extended. It will now conclude on March 11, Governor Usdomsak Usawarangkura said.The original deadline for the investigation – led by Vice-Governor Supachai Yuwaboon and separate from the criminal investigation by the police – was March 2.However,…
- Phuket News
Quake worry sparks reservoir rethink
PHUKET: Plans to build a dam at Bang Niew Dum in Thalang District have been ditched and new plans are being drawn so that the dam will be more resistant to earthquake tremors.Wit Wonggamonchoon, Chief of the Surat Thani-based Irrigation Construction Region 5 office, told the Gazette, “The earthquake off Indonesia was 9.5 on the Richter scale.” Shocks from the…
- Phuket News
B5.25bn set aside to revive tourism
BANGKOK (The Nation): The Cabinet yesterday approved a 5.25-billion-baht budget to carrying out projects to revive tourism in the six Andaman-coast provinces hit by tsunami, after cutting the down the proposed figures by 4.11 billion baht.Government Spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said the Cabinet approved a budget of 2.651 billion baht from the normal budget for the 2005 fiscal year for projects…
- Phuket News
Progress in tsunami fund theft case
PHUKET: Phuket City Police say they have promising leads relating to the apparent theft of more than 2 million baht in government tsunami relief funds, and expect to make an arrest soon.The funds were reported missing on February 15 by Metha Mekarat, Head of the Phuket Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM), who said 2.05 million baht had gone…
