On December 14, 2011 at 9.00 am PM Yingluck Shinawatra gave a statement on flood recovery and restoration policy to 64 Provincial Governors of flood affected provinces, 20 Ministry Inspectors and related parties at Santi Maitri Building, Government House.

PM Office Permanent Secretary Thongthong Chantarangsu reported that the total number of flood affected citizen in the past 3-4 months is 2 million households. Economy, industrial sectors and SMEs were badly destroyed. However, the government prioritized the issue and had allocated a great amount of budget to projects that will help the restoration process. During the special cabinet meeting on December 12, 2011, the government gave the final approval to the initial 20 billion baht restoration budget while more budgets will be followed. PM Yingluck assigned the Prime Minister’s Office to be the center of all the parties that will work on the recovery of 64 flood-hit provinces. Ministers were assigned to monitor each province so that the restoration will be efficient, effective and transparent.

Prime Minister Yingluck gave a statement saying that currently, floods have receded in many areas leading to the post-flood rehabilitation while some areas are still under water. Hence, the government has to work hard both on the rehabilitation process and sending help to areas that are still flooded such as areas in Bangkok and Nakorn Pathom.  The cabinet prioritized the budget allocation for the restoration process. At the present, the cabinet has approved more than 60 billion baht budget from the 120 billion baht rehabilitation budget. For the budget framework, the government still needs the approval from the parliament in February next year. 

With the current limited budget, efficiency is the key. The government has to assure that the first phase of budget is used to help flood affected people in every area especially the compensation of 5,000 baht per household, the compensation of destroyed crops that have to be processed according to the standard and the financial support through the Government’s Saving Bank that will focus on the repair of infrastructure and projects that will facilitate the return of normalcy of flood hit areas. Nevertheless, the budget also has to help stimulate the economy.

For the help to flood victims, the PM would like to see the coordination among Ministry Inspectors, Provincial Governors and Ministers that are assigned to each specific area. The principle given to the officers were 1. The budget allocation has to be transparent and can be investigated. It also has to cover all the victims with no duplication. The officers should refer to the past assessment and the 13-digit National Identification Number. However, some victims may not be included in the past assessment and need more identification. 2. For transportation infrastructure, the central ones are under the Ministry of Transport, for each province the budget is under the provincial governor and for each community the process will be under SML which is a community level mechanism. The PM would like to see the integration in this matter and clear standard for project approvals. 3. For other infrastructures such as schools and temples, the PM prioritized schools so that students can resume their education as early as possible.