SML project will benefit communities, says Thai PM

BANGKOK, May 24 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra launched the Potential of Small, Medium, and Large Villages project (SML) Thursday, acknowledging that her government has revived the project after it had been successfully implemented in the past and had boosted local people’s income and even the overall Thai economy. Yingluck said that her administration will spend 35 billion baht on implementing the revived SML scheme to empower 86,000 villages and communities nationwide, noting that the government has started allocating the fund to villages where village committees have already prepared local development projects. Under the revived SML project, large-scaled villages each receives 500,000 baht, medium-scaled villages 400,000 baht each and small-scaled villages 300,000 baht each, with each village eligible for the fund required to have a legitimate village committee, a clear framework of its development projects and a bank account to receive the money. Yingluck expressed her confidence that the state fund for the SML project will enable local villagers, through their village committees, to handle problems in their own communities, suggesting local villagers to follow the Sufficiency Economy guideline advised by His Majesty the King. The prime minister insisted, however, that her government could handle economic problems, but villagers should also take part in solving problems in their own communities. After launching the project, the prime minister had a video conference with community leaders in all four Thai regions to discuss their projects. (TNA)