Farmers harvest rice in Thailand's southern Narathiwat province

Permanent secretary of the Finance Ministry Prasong Poontaneat said theministry will have a meeting with relevant agencies such as the Bank forAgriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and Government Saving Bank toimplement the stimulus package.

According to Prasong, immediate measures include special loans fromcommunity-level financial institutions at an interest of less than 1.25 percentper month in order to solve the loan-shark problem.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak recently said the governmentwill carry out new stimulus packages for local people in an effort to improve therural economy.

Earlier, the government approved stimulus measures worth 21.83 billion THB toshore up a slowing economy, and boost consumption to offset weaker exports. Themeasures cover spending of 13.2 billion THB in public welfare benefits forlow-income earners, plus tax measures worth 8.62 billion THB.

Besides, it is aiming to raise the quality of living of some 14 millionlow-income people by using state-owned banks to provide loans to them to createcommunity business.

At a recent conference on sustainable economic development, Finance MinisterUttama Savanayana said the ministry would announce measures to encourageprivate sector’s participation in community development./.VNA