Thailand's new water management plan expected early next year

BANGKOK, December 17 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Saturday that her government is tailoring the country's new strategic water management plan, which is expected to be completed in January, 2012. Speaking during her weekly address in Chiang Mai Province, her hometown, in the Thai North, Yingluck acknowledged that the new water management plan will help build up confidence in Thailand among international investors and visitors, in the wake of the country's flooding crisis over the past couple of months. Yingluck conceded that some areas in Bangkok's suburban Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Nakhon Pathom Provinces have remained flooded and she has ordered governors of the provinces to quickly pump out floodwater so that the areas could become dry before the upcoming New Year holidays. According to the Pheu Thai premier, her government has also implemented several projects promised during electoral campaigns to stimulate the national economy, including the rice mortgage scheme, the first home-buyer program and the debt moratorium project for local farmers. (TNA)