PM inspects progress at Yala airport
Link part of plans to ease South violence
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will today inspect progress on a project to build a new airport in Yala’s Betong district, which is due to open in June next year.
The prime minister will also preside over the unveiling of a new civil service complex in the deep South, visit local residents and give financial assistance to those affected by southern violence, among several other scheduled activities.
Rear Adm Somkeart Ponprayoon, director-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, said that the southern violence has eased, with the number of young insurgent sympathisers declining as a result of government efforts to improve education and the regional economy and create jobs.
Over the past 18 months an estimated 1.8 billion baht, or 100 million baht per month, has been invested in the three southernmost provinces, Rear Adm Somkeart said, adding that the Board of Investment has offered tax breaks for investment in industrial machinery.
Rear Adm Somkeart also said that some 1.5 million tourists visited the three southernmost provinces between 2016 and 2017, generating revenue of more than 4.6 billion baht.
On Oct 6, 2015, the cabinet agreed to the construction of the new airport in Yala, to make travel to the South more convenient. Betong is located in mountainous terrain which makes it difficult to reach the district.
The new airport, with a budget of about 1.9 billion baht, is part of plans to develop the southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.
Construction began in 2016 and is estimated to be 85% to 95% complete, with the contractor expected to hand over the airport in November.
Gen Prayut had ordered a runway at the airport to be extended from 1,800 metres to 2,100 metres, to serve larger aircraft and increase tourist numbers.
Betong is one of the three southern districts being promoted under the socalled “southern economic triangle” programme approved by the cabinet on Oct 4, 2016 to boost the economy in the deep South and ease the southern insurgency.
The development model also includes Nong Chik district of Pattani and Sungai Kolok district of Narathiwat.
A development budget of more than five billion baht was approved by the cabinet, and all the projects are scheduled for completion by 2020.
The projects, which will focus on transport infrastructure, also include a plan to build two bridges across the Kolok River in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok and Tak Bai districts.