|
|
|
|
Home »
Phuket
» 09.09.09 Bt2 billion for Phuket conference center: Anchalee |
|
|
| | |
|
 | |  |
|
09.09.09 Bt2 billion for Phuket conference center: Anchalee
Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr.
Phuket will receive a two
billion baht central government budget in fiscal 2010 to build the
long-awaited international convention and exhibition center (ICEC) at
the island’s northern tip, the Prime Minister’s Office has announced.
Anchalee
Vanich-Thepabutr, who currently serves as Deputy Secretary of the
Office of the Prime Minister’s political affairs section, made the
announcement via a press release issued through the Phuket Provincial
Office.
A Democrat Party insider, Mrs Anchalee is also former
president of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (PPAO)
and wife of sitting Phuket MP Tossaporn Thepabutr.
According to
the press release, Phuket will get two billion baht in funding for the
project as part of phase two of the government’s 100-billion-baht
‘Strong Thai Action Plan 2012’ stimulus package.
Administered by
the Ministry of Finance, the huge spending bill will pump money into
the economy, boosting it over the last three months of 2009, Mrs
Anchalee wrote.
Terms of the spending plan are still under
review by Parliament, but final approval is expected prior to the start
of fiscal 2010, which begins on October 1, 2009.
When completed,
the center will allow Phuket to host international exhibitions on the
same scale as the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) held annually in
Berlin, Germany, she wrote.
Events hosted at the center will boost tourist arrivals and lead to increased revenue over the entire island, she said.
Better
economic infrastructure and human resources will need to be developed
to cope with the expected surge in arrival figures above the present
rate of about five million per year, Mrs Anchalee wrote.
The site of the project will be a 150-rai plot of seaside land on the northern tip of the island.
The land is currently held under the Treasury Department’s State Property Management and Services Office, or Ratchapassadu.
The
site is near the 50-million-baht Phuket Welcome Gate, a facility
conceived by Mrs Anchalee and built during her tenure as PPAO president.
Plans
to build an ICEC to help support the island’s hotel industry have been
around for decades, but political instability and infighting over where
the project should be located have prevented the dream from ever
becoming reality.
Detractors, especially those with business
interests in the more developed southern part of the island, feel the
location is too remote from the island’s main population center.
Proponents
say the ICEC will help further develop nearby Phang Nga as well as Mai
Khao, which is already home to the Phuket International Airport and is
slated to be the new home of Police Region 8 headquarters in a few
years’ time.
Source: Phuketgazette, 09.09.09
http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/index.asp?id=7754
| |
 | |  |
| | |
|
Other Recent Articles from the Phuket Category:
| |
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
09.07.09 Most Thais fail to save for retirement
|
|
|
|
|
