Thailand English-language News for February 22

In Thailand English-language News for February 22, 2018, Newsline presenter Sandra Hanutsaha tells us about:

00:47 | Cultural shows performed by the students attracted many visitors to the winter festival in the Dusit District of Bangkok on Tuesday. Open until March 11 from 10.30am to 9pm (10pm on Fridays and Saturdays), the festival features exhibitions on important events that took place during the reign of King Rama V and King Rama IX. Traditional Thai dress is required to enter.

02:07 | Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha and his officials has visited the Laem Bua Learning Center for Agricultural Productivity in Nakhon Pathom to follow up on the government’s agricultural policies as part of his tour to promote sustainable Thai idealism.

03:41 | Provinces nationwide have launched the Thai Niyom Yang Yuen project to drive the country’s development in accordance with the government’s policy.

05:49 | Somchai Sawangkarn, spokesman of the joint committee in charge of the draft law on the election of Members of Parliament (MPs), said on Wednesday that the latest committee meeting discussed the budget each political party will be allowed to spend on their election campaign, agreeing that the rate should be the same for every party, but be based on their candidate numbers.

Mr Somchai said that the committee had also agreed on extending the hours polling booths will be open to 8am to 5pm.

07:03 | Election Commissioner (EC) Somchai Srisuthhiyakorn said on Wednesday that the latest EC meeting endorsed the draft local election law, which had already passed a public consultation process involving 3,847 people, most of whom work with local administrative organisations across the country.

Mr Somchai said that new additions to the draft law include the duration of the terms of executives and members of the local administrative council, which will now have to begin and end together.

Mr Somchai said that the Election Commission (EC) will present the endorsed draft law to the cabinet on February 28 in order to allow local and provincial elections to take place as soon as possible.

08:44 | Minister attached to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Kobsak Pootrakool, has instructed officials of the Public Relations Department (PRD) to take a proactive approach to publicising government policies to the people.

During a visit to the PRD head office Mr Kobsak listened to the problems confronting the PRD, such as budgeting, content production, human resource development, generation of revenue from advertisements, and the cost of acquiring digital TV licenses for regional stations of the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT).

10:14 | The Secretariat of the House of Representatives has launched the 2018 Phan Waen Fa Literary Award in the categories of short stories and poetry. This year’s theme is to promote citizenship in a democratic society.

Those interested in participating in the competition can submit their original writing to the Secretariat of the House of Representatives by post or email until April 30.

13:11 | Deputy transport minister Pailin Chuchottaworn has told the ‘Mega MOVE 2018 seminar’ that 11 electric rail routes covering a total distance of 480 kilometres (about 259 miles) will be operational by 2027, making Bangkok one of the top five cities globally with the longest rail routes.

14:29 | A Russian business delegation visiting Thailand until today is the latest by foreign trade groups interested in business opportunities in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). The delegation comprises 50 leading Russian companies from areas such as transport and logistics, infrastructure development, finance, medicine and biotechnologies, and energy.

Deputy minister of economic development of the Russian Federation, Alexei Gruzdev, described the EEC as a platform for mutually beneficial cooperation, foreshadowing aviation, cyber security, and military technology as just three areas of potential cooperation between Thailand and Russia.

19:27 | Newsline takes a look at a mobile application called ‘Taxi Ok’ that was recently launched by the Department of Land Transport (DLT) aimed at enhancing Thai taxis. Some 6,000 taxi have registered with the programme. Taxis enrolled in the programme are equipped with a new roof light, trip recorder, GPS tracking system, passenger emergency button, and interior camera.

22:34 | A Philippines’s court on Tuesday sentenced an Australian man, Drew Frederick Shobbrook, to three life sentences in prison after finding him guilty of human trafficking and child sex abuses.

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Newsline is a daily Thailand English-language news and current affairs programme produced by the National News Bureau of Thailand (NNBT) under the Thailand Government Public Relations Department (PRD) for *NBT World, the NNBTs 24/7 English language television service delivering Thailand government news and information to the Thai, Asean, and wider Asian communities. AEC News Today publishes Thailand English-language News M-F.