Thai PM to join APEC forums 2011 in Hawaii

BANGKOK, November 2 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra affirmed on Wednesday that she will attend the forthcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, scheduled to be held in the US Hawaii State from November 12-15. Yingluck insisted that she will join the APEC Summit 2011 and related forums, during which she will brief the country's updated situation to national and business leaders in the region and to build up confidence in Thailand among international investors and visitors. Yingluck acknowledged that she is working out rehabilitation plans for flood-hit areas, and that she believes the country's ongoing vast floods since late July will be receding by the time she departs for Hawaii. In response to a proposal that the government set up the Water Ministry, the first-ever in the country, to take care of national water issues, the Pheu Thai premier said that her administration has heeded and will consider all proposed ideas, noting, however, that the government is now giving priority to expediting a master plan on national water management under which all water projects will be integrated on the same track. Regarding flooding in Bangkok, the prime minister revealed that there has been more progress on water drainage in the capital's eastern side, where floodwater is expected to be stable in the coming days, than the western side, where parts of sluices, as long as some seven kilometres totally, have broken down and repairs are scheduled to be complete by the middle of this month. The premier acknowledged that sea levels will be falling until November 8, in the wake of a high tide late last month, all agencies concerned have, therefore, been speeding up draining out floodwater to the sea. (TNA)