Malaysian PM to visit Thailand next month

BANGKOK, Nov 27 (TNA) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will visit Thailand December 8-9 to meet his Thai counterpart in Bangkok and will also visit Thailand's Malaysian border province of Narathiwat in the deep South.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Friday he will meet Mr Najib in the capital of Bangkok on December 8. Both leaders will go to the southern province of Narathiwat on the following day to see education development there.

The government aims to develop education and generate income for local residents in Thailand's three southern border provinces as part of its strategies to tackle the violence in the southern border provinces.

Later on the same day, they will visit a bridge crossing the Kolok River linking the two countries to sign a pact to change the bridge's name to ‘Friendship Bridge’.

The Malaysian prime minister earlier this month suggested that the insurgency-torn southern border provinces of Thailand should be granted a certain degree of autonomy.

Mr Abhisit said that the Thai government wants more public participation in local administration and that it is proceeding with the decentralisation of power from the central and provincial levels to local government bodies.

No matter what form of involvement actually takes place, the approach must not contradict the Constitution, Mr Abhisit said.

The Thai prime minister said he will talk with his Malaysian counterpart when Mr Najib visits Thailand in early December. (TNA)