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Bt17 bn in BAAC aid to farmers

The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) has provided Bt17.52 billion in soft loans to support farmers hit hard by flooding last year, executive vice president Ennoo Suesuwan announced yesterday.

Major flooding damaged 2.4 million rai of farmland in 51 provinces in the central and northern regions.

The BAAC found that 148,307 farmers were adversely affected, and it provided financial support worth Bt17.52 billion.

The bank wrote off debts worth Bt1.09 million for 12 farmers who lost their lives. It also extended the debt repayment period and waived interest charges for three years, totalling Bt16.78 billion for 119,666 farmers. In addition, it also granted new loans worth Bt738 million to 28,629 farmers.

The BAAC also transferred Bt4.5 billion of government rescue funds to farmers.

Ennoo admitted the bank was worried about debt repayment after a large number of farmers suffered from the natural disaster.

Moreover, the previous government's farm subsidy projects have hit the bank financially.

The BAAC will ask the government to compensate for its financial losses from official projects worth Bt20 billion next year.

This year, the government has agreed to compensate the bank by Bt17.5 billion.

Ford mulls plant

Ford is studying the possibility of spending US$1 billion (Bt35.8 billion) to build a new manufacturing facility in Thailand, which would have a capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year - 120,000 of them for export.

Ford said in a statement it was very interested in ensuring that appropriate policies were implemented to maximise Thailand's potential to be a major global auto-manufacturing base.

Ford said it also needed clear criteria for the government's support for small-car production.

The Nation
Thu, February 1, 2007