Cabinet nods for new investment in Thai North

BANGKOK, January 17 (TNA) - The Thai Cabinet has given the green light to new infrastructure development projects in the country’s northern resort Chiang Mai Province, totally worth some 380 billion baht. Thai Deputy Prime Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong told reporters that the new 128 infrastructure development projects in Chiang Mai include a high-speed train plan linking Chiang Mai with Bangkok, as well as the province's upgraded mass transit and flood prevention systems. Kittirat, who is Commerce Minister concurrently, said that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has ordered him and the Finance Ministry to work out the state budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2012, to fund the new public investment projects in Chiang Mai within this month so that the government can adjust its overall state budget in the 2013 fiscal year accordingly. The deputy premier acknowledged that the Thai Cabinet has also approved a 33-billion-baht cassava root mortgage scheme which will be implemented from February 1-May 31, 2012, covering 10 million tons of cassava roots with the mortgage price set at 2.75 baht per kilogram for cassava roots of 25 per-cent starch content. According to the deputy premier, the mortgage price changes by 2 satang (Bt0.02) per each percentage point of starch content and each farmer can pledge 250 tons of cassava roots in the government-funded mortgage scheme. (TNA)