The Bangkok Post
Covid-19 crisis casts shadow over graduate futures
The coronavirus outbreak casts a shadow over the future of approximately 300,000 soon-to-be graduates this year. The bleak prospect of unemployment and layoffs as the economy staggers back to growth is expected to persist for at least two years. Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation ...
THANA BOONLERT
New quarantine venues for returnees in Bangkok
Additional state quarantine facilities in the capital are being offered to Thais returning from overseas this month, according to a Defence Ministry official. The facilities include those in Qiu Hotel and Movenpick Hotel in central Bangkok. Returnees are required to spend 14 days in state-designated quarantine facilities, ...
WASSANA NANUAM
Govt to hire jobless to offer health advice
The government may employ public health volunteers to advise on how to prevent disease transmission as certain business activities reopen from the lockdown today. Speaking at the Ministry of Public Health, Sathit Pitutecha, the ministry’s deputy minister, said the government is concerned about the large number ...
APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
Ministry setting up cash for 2m disabled
The Finance Ministry is seeking a lifeline for the 2 million disabled and underprivileged people who are adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak, says finance permanent secretary Prasong Poontaneat. The ministry is working out the details with the Social Development and Human Security Ministry, which has ...
WICHIT CHANTANUSORNSIRI
Key to controlling wildfires lies with communities
While attention is focused on the coronavirus pandemic, we must also be alert to another fast-spreading hazard claiming lives — wildfires. Several people died this year fighting fires in northern Thailand. Now, hundreds of fires are burning there, in Laos and Myanmar. We expect more fires ...
DAVID GANZ
At-cost power bills get ministry nod
The Energy Ministry approved a plan on Thursday to charge mid-sized and large businesses for electricity at cost instead of mandatory minimum pricing from April to June, another relief measure to help shuttered companies with their power bills. The decision came after calls from the Federation ...
YUTHANA PRAIWAN
Delay mulled for personal data law enforcement
The Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry is seeking to postpone the enforcement of the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), due to take effect late next month, saying state and private organisations will be too burdened to comply during the pandemic. The PDPA was published in ...
KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA AND SUCHIT LEESA-NGUANSUK
Anti-drug campaign aided by pandemic checking
More than 5,800 suspects have been arrested and 233 million methamphetamine or “speed” pills seized during a regional anti-drug campaign that has benefited from the Covid-19 pandemic. Niyom Termrisuk, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), said the mushrooming number of checkpoints due ...
KING-OUA LAOHONG
National forest reserve encroached in Mae Sot
Three large tracts of woodland — about 45 rai altogether — were found to have been encroached on inside the Mae Sot National Forest Reserve in Phop Phra district, according to a local media report. The encroachment was reported to the 6th Forest Protection Unit in ...
ASSAWIN PINITWONG
OPINION: China's drain on Mekong
More water discharged from Chinese dams to the lower Mekong River in the dry season and less water in the rainy season. That means a reduction of drought and flooding in the lower Mekong countries. That was the ideal “cooperation” Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam ...