Thailand's private conglomerates join hands to help flood victims

BANGKOK, November 16 (TNA) - A flood relief initiative, “Power of Thai”, has been launched by a dozen of private conglomerates to help affected people and to rehabilitate inundated areas. The "Power of Thai" is a charity project, under which the 12 conglomerates will raise an about 100- million-baht fund from the public by selling one million wristbands embedded with the “Power of Thai” message, beginning over the next couple of weeks, and will financially contribute from their separate coffers partly. According to President of Thai Beverage Public Company Limited Thapana Siriwattanapakdi, his conglomerate has initiated the project and has invited the 11 others to join forces, with the mobilized fund to be mostly spent on rehabilitating schools and other educational institutes having been damaged by floods. True Corp's chief executive officer (CEO) Supachai Chearavanont acknowledged that buildings, computers and other educational equipment of at least 1,900 schools in flood-hit provinces have been found damaged. The True Corp CEO also expressed his agreement with the Thai government’s plan to invest in mega irrigation projects to not only stimulate the national economy, through more job creations and circulating cashes, but also rebuild and sustain international business operators and travellers' confidence in Thailand. (TNA)