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- Phuket News
B75m budget for homeless victims
PHUKET: The central government has budgeted 75 million baht to construct new homes for some 4,000 families left homeless in the six provinces affected by the December 26 tsunami. Speaking at a press conference at the Governor’s Office this afternoon, Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula said the aid will come from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Finance Ministry and private donations.K.…
- Phuket News
TAT pushing hard to help recovery
PHUKET CITY: Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Juthamas Siriwan said today that any delay in recovering from the December 26 tsunami will cost the country 10 billion baht a month in lost tourism revenue.As a result, she said, “We are in a hurry to let people abroad know that [any danger from] the tsunami has already passed, and many…
- Phuket News
13 looters arrested in Patong
PATONG: Police have arrested 13 people for looting damaged businesses in the Patong area.Pol Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen, the Superintendent of Kathu Police Station, told the Gazette that since December 26 his officers had arrested nine Thais and four Burmese for looting.“In accordance with the law, people engaged in theft at a time of crisis like this are subject to severe…
- Phuket News
B20m support for beleaguered tourists
PHUKET: The Government has given the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) permission to spend 20 million baht on supporting tourists in the six provinces affected by the tsunami.Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop said during a visit to the emergency centre at Phuket Provincial Hall that the TAT would receive 20 million baht of the 260 million baht Thailand has already…
- Phuket News
1,536 died in tidal waves
PHUKET: Figures released this morning by the emergency center at Phuket Provincial Hall list 1,536 people dead, 8,953 injured and 4,073 missing in the six southern provinces affected by Sunday’s tsunami waves.Among the dead are 187 foreigners, 1,175 Thais and 174 people whose nationalities remain unknown.The breakdown of the figures is as follows:Phuket: 233 dead; 1,268 injured; 1,580 reported missing.(Deaths:…
- Phuket News
Cabinet approves B2.8bn in emergency aid
PHUKET: The Cabinet yesterday approved a 2.8-billion-baht emergency relief budget to help relieve the suffering of those affected by December 26 tsunami.Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula said that during a video-conference Cabinet meeting in Phuket yesterday morning, PM Thaksin ordered that the search for bodies in the areas of the Phi Phi Islands and Khao Lak be intensified.Bodies are now piling…
- Phuket News
Patong clean-up underway
PATONG: Patong Municipality yesterday approved a 20-million-baht budget to begin clean-up operations following the devastation wrought by tsunami waves on Sunday.Mayor Pian Keesin today told the Gazette that municipal officials were still searching for bodies, but that 100% of those who suffered injury had already been sent to hospitals.He said workers and vehicles had been hired to clear debris along…
- Phuket News
Laguna denies being “totally destroyed’
PHUKET: Laguna Phuket has issued a press statement denying reports broadcast globally on Cable News Network (CNN) that the resort was “totally destroyed” in the Boxing Day tsunami.Laguna Phuket events and Press Relations Manager Michelle Payette told the Gazette, “Not only are we not gone, but we are operational. And we think we will be fully operational within four days.“Anything…
- Phuket News
Police bust major gambling ring
PHUKET CITY: Police have arrested the suspected “bankers” of a multi-million-baht gambling operation in Phuket City.Somkid Korkiatiwong, 40, and Somchai Santi-Amorntat, 51, both of Kra Rd, were arrested at a home on Takuatung Rd on Sunday.The arresting officers found a computer, fax, two photocopiers, a bankbook, three large hessian sacks and 10,000 baht in cash, along with “betting slips” relating…
- Phuket News
Governor’s last chance for Ao Phuket approval
PHUKET CITY: Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura is to make a last-ditch attempt to persuade the Cabinet to approve the Ao Phuket development project before Parliament is dissolved for February’s general election.The proposed development concerns more than 3,200 rai of land and a budget of more than 63 billion baht. It would include a convention center, hotels, apartments, shopping centers, entertainment facilities,…
- Phuket News
Phuket’s business boom continues
PHUKET: The number of new businesses registered on Phuket so far this year has increased by nearly 50% over the number for the same period last year, according to statistics from the Phuket Provincial Business Development Office (PBDO).Yongyuth Kasetsuntorn, head of the the PBDO, told the Gazette that 1,452 new limited partnerships and limited companies were registered from January 1 to…
- Phuket News
No early closing on New Year’s Eve
PHUKET: Entertainment venues will be allowed to stay open until 6 am on New Year’s morning, the Deputy Secretary of Phuket Provincial Administration Office, Wisut Romin, has told the Gazette.During the latter part of this year, nighttime venues have been the focus of a battle between the government, which has commanded them to close at midnight or 1 am, and…
- Phuket News
TAT to celebrate B300m high-season bonanza
PHUKET: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) expects no less than 300 million baht to be injected into the Phuket economy over the upcoming holiday period from December 23 to January 2.TAT Region 4 Director Suwalai Pinpradab told the Gazette today that a recent check of hotel occupancy rates and advanced bookings indicates that most island hotels will be fully-booked,…
- Phuket News
Trees felled at Nai Harn “to improve the view’
NAI HARN: As the high season gets into full swing, trees around Nai Harn Lake have been felled in a project to “improve the view” around the tidal lake.The narrow grassy area around the lake has already been dug up and tons of rock are being dumped to strengthen the banks.Local residents have been disturbed to see brown earth from…
- Phuket News
Expo center bickering ‘has cost B100bn’
PHUKET CITY: Juthamas Siriwan, the Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), today lamented the long delay in coming to a decision on the site for Phuket’s International Convention and Exhibition Center (ICEC), saying that the arguments have cost Phuket 100 billion baht in lost revenue.“Building an ICEC in Phuket has to be delayed until we have a clear picture…
- Phuket News
Democrats, TRT in slanging match
THALANG: Senior figures from Thailand’s two main parties went head-to-head at a fund-raiser for youth education at Baan Nanai yesterday.Surin Pitsuwan, Deputy Leader of the Democrat Party and a former Foreign Minister, made a speech in which he charged the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) Party with “buying” a former Democrat Party MP representing a province near Phuket.The MP has announced…
- Phuket News
Gov to push for expo center in Ao Phuket
PHUKET: Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura says he will ask the Cabinet later this month to approve plans for Phuket’s International Conference and Exhibition Center (ICEC) to be built in the proposed Ao Phuket development. “The estimated cost of reclaiming land in Ao Phuket is 1 million baht a rai, which is cheap compared with the price at which land in Phuket…
- Phuket News
Mobile minimarts launched
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (OrBorJor) yesterday unveiled some of the “mobile minimarts” which will sell “clean” food around the island in a 1.5-million-baht initiative to promote food hygiene among vendors and buyers.Phuket Technical College worked with the OrBorJor to design a stainless steel rust-free minimart attachment for motorbikes, at a cost of 23,000 baht each.OrBorJor President Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr…
- Phuket News
Cleaning up Patong is my top priority – Pian
PATONG: Mayor Pian Keesin, in what appears to be, finally, a response to years of complaints by tourists and the tourism industry – has pledged to keep the streets of Patong clean and the roads surfaced, and to improve wastewater treatment.K. Pian, who was elected mayor for the second time in June – he lost the position in 2001 in…
- Phuket News
On a wing and a prayer
PHUKET: People in Phuket have made more than half a million origami birds to be sent to the troubled southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat as part of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s unusual peace initiative.Nationally, more than 80 million of the origami birds have been collected. They will be taken by aircraft and scattered over the three provinces – which…
- Phuket News
“Worrying’ Aids figures in Phuket
PHUKET: Phuket has the second-highest incidence of Aids of Thailand’s southern provinces, and the fifth-highest rate in the country, according to the Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO).The number of cases is still rising, Dr Wanchai Sattayawuthipong, the head of the PPHO, said. “The number of Aids cases in Phuket has risen in each of the past three years. In Phuket,…
- Phuket News
Shortage of monitors for general election
PHUKET: Just over two months before Thailand’s general election is due to take place, Phuket still does not have enough observers to monitor the polling to ensure that it is clean, one of Thailand’s four Election Commissioners revealed yesterday.“This is a big problem,” the Commissioner, Prinya Nakchudtree, told local authority officials gathered at Phuket Municipality.K. Prinya said the shortage of…
- Phuket News
Blaze damages eight shophouses
KARON: Eight shophouses near the Central Waterfront Tower in Karon were damaged yesterday afternoon in a fire that caused damage estimated at around 10 million baht.Some of the three-story buildings in the row were still under construction and the fire is believed to have started when electricians welding steel in one of the houses dropped sparks into a can of…
- Phuket News
Visitors to Phuket up by 10pc
PHUKET CITY: Around two million tourists visited Phuket between January and June this year – an increase of more than 10% on the same period in 2003 – according to the Director of the Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Suwalai Pinpradab.This year’s visitors brought around 38 billion baht into Phuket, around 4 billion more than during…
- Phuket News
US donates anti-terror gear
PHUKET CITY: As part of its fight against terrorism, the US Department of Defense has donated anti-terrorism equipment worth about 2 million baht to Royal Thai Police Region 8, which includes Phuket.In a ceremony at Phuket Provincial Police Headquarters this morning, David Turner, Chief of the US Defense Department’s Force Protection Detachment at the US Embassy in Bangkok, presented the…
- Thailand News
Another fine mess
BANGKOK: Unscrupulous police officers extorting money from the public hardly constitutes news in Thailand – but it is noteworthy when the police themselves become victims of malfeasance. Between March and October this year, Pol Sgt Tarntip Preak-kratok managed to skim off nearly 3 million baht in fines collected by the Nongkam Police Station, where she was employed as a desk…
- Phuket News
B66m in deals inked at Hong Kong property show
HONG KONG: Exhibitors at the Phuket & Samui Property Exhibition say they were pleased with the quality of visitors to the show, and the general organization of it.The event featured mostly property developers from Phuket and Koh Samui, but also attracted one developer from Bangkok and another, South Thailand Homes, looking to sell a development on Koh Lanta.Although none of the…
- Phuket News
Land fees generate B935m
PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Provincial Land Office (PPLO) has collected 935 million baht in taxes and fees this year, more than three times the amount collected last year.The money was generated from purchases and sales of land, subdivisions of plots, and issuance of permits for development projects during the financial year from October 1, 2003 to September 30, 2004.PPLO Chief Suphot Suwannachote told the…
- Phuket News
B95m Ao Por marina plan unveiled
PHUKET: Thailand’s largest construction company, Italian-Thai Development (ITD), is to invest 95 million baht in its first project in Phuket, a marina at Ao Por.The project will be handled by the Ao Por Pattana Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITD.Project manager Akaraphan Suwanchot said the marina would be built near Ao Por pier, which is itself about to undergo complete…
- Phuket News
Alleged jewel thief arrested in Koh Lanta
KOH LANTA: Anthony “Dirk” De Weirdt, wanted for questioning in connection with missing jewelry worth an estimated 18 million baht, was arrested on Koh Lanta on Friday following a tip-off.De Weirdt, a Belgian who was formerly the factory manager of Bangkok’s CB Fine Jewelry, disappeared shortly after precious stones and other items were found missing from the company’s safe on…
