Sirikanlaya-Detcharat-Chitwan” discuss ways to revive Chiang Rai’s economy with the community and business people. In the short term, they will speed up the recovery of houses from the mud and accelerate the plan to revive the city in time for the tourist season in November.
Yesterday (5 October 2014) at Chiang Rai City Development Company (CRDC) Limited, Sirikanya Tansakul, Deputy Leader of the Prachachon Party, Decha Rat Sukkamnerd, Director of Think Forward Center, and Chitwan Chin-anuwat, Chiang Rai MP, District 1, Prachachon Party, joined in listening to problems, opinions, and policy suggestions with the Chiang Rai business community in the industrial, tourism, and service sectors, as well as civil society and local administrative organizations.
In this regard, the Chiang Rai community and business people reflected that they wanted to see Chiang Rai’s recovery in 3 steps: urgent and immediate assistance, holistic recovery, and sustainable urban development design.
In the short term, urgent assistanc
e for urban recovery should be to restore houses and communities still covered in mud in both Mueang and Mae Sai districts by adding machinery, equipment and people to the area, including accelerating the budget process to support local administrative organizations in restoring the city in time before the high season of tourism in November.
For disaster-stricken entrepreneurs, access to interest-free loans to rehabilitate their businesses, as well as debt relief, is essential to avoid default, which will affect their access to capital in the long run.
In the agricultural sector, where there are many damaged rice fields, shrimp/fish ponds, it is necessary to urgently procure rice seeds in time for the dry season (January 1, 2025), including the rehabilitation of damaged rice fields and farm ponds in some areas.
The next phase is the holistic recovery, which involves accelerating the restoration of confidence for tourists to return to Chiang Rai, organizing tourism/creative economy activities, and restoring
the mental state of Chiang Rai residents.
In addition, we need to develop a warning system, starting from telemetry stations in various rivers of the Kok, Ing, and Mekong river basins, setting warning criteria and flood risk maps in various cities, reviewing/making/rehearsing disaster response plans (both floods/PM2.5 dust and earthquakes), preparing evacuation areas and shelters to be ready.
In the long term, it is necessary to design Chiang Rai to be sustainable, especially in terms of urban planning, reducing obstacles to rivers, including the Kok River, Ing River, Sai River, and other rivers, along with preventing disasters that may occur in the city/economic area.
While Sirikanya Tansakul, deputy leader of the party, agreed with the various approaches proposed by the Chiang Rai community and suggested that it is necessary to urgently push for Chiang Rai’s economic machinery, both the service sector, especially tourism, the agricultural sector, and the industrial sector, to resume operations in time fo
r the seasons of each economic sector. Discussions and cooperation with various agencies will be held to push for the restoration of Chiang Rai to be in line with the timeframe, especially by having a package that will encourage people in the country and around the world to know that Chiang Rai is ready to move forward again.
Decha Rat Sukkamnerd, Director of Think Forward Center, said that he is pleased to urgently coordinate with agencies in the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and universities to procure rice seeds in time for the dry season rice planting. He will try to create a model of 20 tons of rice for planting and 20 tons of rice for eating for each village. He will also manage it as a rice seed fund and rice bank in the village to create long-term food security. He will also coordinate with the Hydro-Informatics Institute and the Office of National Water Resources to enhance warning levels in the Kok, Ing, and Upper Mekong River Basins to be more comprehensive, accurate, and rapid.
Chitwa
n Chin-Anuwat, Chiang Rai MP for District 1, Prachachon Party, said he was happy to help mobilize all forces to restore Chiang Rai, and agreed that Chiang Rai must be designed and improved to reduce risks and better cope with disasters.
Source: Thai News Agency