Thailand’s Flood Situation: The Road to Recovery

 The current flooding in central Thailand caused by the extraordinary amount of torrential rain from five successive storms is the worst in recent Thai history, posing an immediate and long-term challenge for the Kingdom. The unprecedented level of floods have inundated one-fifth of the country including industrial zones and rice fields, villages and towns. Since Thailand is a regional manufacturing base and a major provider of food to the world, questions are being raised regarding supply chain and food security. Our neighbours and fellow ASEAN Member States have also suffered in differing degrees from the same storms.  It is therefore imperative that the country recovers as quickly as possible. Affected workers must be re-employed. Damaged facilities must be repaired. Thailand is ready to build confidence, regain trust, and restore the country’s prosperity and stability in the long-term in a manner that is sustainable and systematic.

 The Government has set up a National Committee to prepare a comprehensive strategy for the country’s rehabilitation to make Thailand better, safer and stronger. The strategy is separated into three parallel phases, namely, the 3R’s – Rescue, Restore and Rebuild. 

For the immediate phase, rescue efforts have been undertaken and will be completed within 1 - 2 months. The Government has been addressing the needs of the people, receiving donations, distributing relief assistance, providing medical care and temporary shelters and managing the floods.

 In the short-term phase, restoration efforts will be undertaken and completed within one year to quickly restore various systems so that they are operational again through measures such as the provision of remedies, financial assistance, loans and various privileges.

 In the long-term phase which covers actions taken to build confidence, regain trust and restore the country’s prosperity and stability, the Government has set up the strategic committees for reconstruction and future development as well as water resources management by inviting respected experts from various fields to formulate a strategy for the country’s rehabilitation so as to provide confidence to investors about Thailand’s water management system and its future economic potential.

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The Government’s Response to the Floods

  In order to alleviate the current flood situations, the Government approved a flood relief and recovery plan totalling over 10 billion US dollars which includes 8.3 billion US dollars in soft loans being planned for SMEs, entrepreneurs and industrial estate developments and 1.42 billion US dollars for reconstructing the economy and  society to be offered to both the industrial and agricultural sectors. This relief and recovery plan will be implemented as follows:

1. Immediate Phase:Immediate measures focusing on ensuring people’s safety and diminishing damage to businesses; helping people and businesses adjust to the current flood situations within 1 - 2 months, which are:

• Database for infrastructure rehabilitation;




• Integration of activities in temporary shelters;




• Social rehabilitation activities;




• Main economic measures consisting of (1) Measures for the industrial sector; (2) Providing assistance to labourers through skill-development programs; (3) Restoring and repairing roads and infrastructure; (4) Measures on water management; and
  
  (5) Approaches to monitoring, rationing, and regulating prices of goods and services

2. Short-term Phase: Measures focusing on reconstructing the economy and  society in a comprehensive manner consisting of:

• Measures concerning loans for people and business operators affected by the floods;

1. Individual loans provided by Special Financial Institutions comprising loans for individual groups, housing mortgage and loans for affected farmers;




2. Individual loans provided by Social Security Program comprising individual loans for affected business enterprises for reconstruction and individual loans for affected self-insured for reparation of residence;




3. Soft loans from business operators provided by the Government Savings Bank in cooperation with commercial banks;




4. Loans provided by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC);




5. Loans for development of flood-protection systems for industrial estates and manufacturers;




6. Loans for SMEs provided by the Small Business Credit Guarantee Corporation;




7. Credit guarantees for SMEs provided by the Small Business Credit Guarantee Corporation




8. Investment incentives and other measures, such as:

           - Consideration by the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI)  on the extension of the incentive period and the investment benefits for affected investors;                                    

            - Facilitation of visa application and employment licensing procedures

           - A plan of action for dewatering and reconstruction of industrial estates with the aim of resuming business operations within 45 days after the flood has receded.

 3. Long-term Phase:Comprehensive reconstruction of the water management system for flood prevention in 2012, and management that can effectively resolve flood problems in the long run by identifying nation-wide rehabilitation in the post-crisis period as a national agenda consisting of:

• Development of the water management system;




• Acceleration of the construction of a permanent flood-prevention system to ensure industrial confidence;




• Designation of the development areas in compliance with the appropriateness of each area and implementation of comprehensive urban planning;




• Design, construction and restoration of infrastructure to ensure water flow and better risk management in case of flood;




• Ensure adoption of appropriate agricultural production practices of farmers;




• Improvement of the warning system for efficient flood emergency management;




• Review and revision of laws and regulations on water resource management;




• Enhance the people’s participation in national water and water resource management.
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