Thai PM hopes restive South will improve soon

CEBU, Jan 14 (TNA) – Prime Minister Gen. Surayud Chulanont said here Sunday that he believed the bloody violence in Thailand's restive southern provinces will ease in the near future after Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have pledged to continue undertaking joint development.

Expressing his concerns over the continued unrest in three southern Thai provinces, Gen. Surayud, now attending the 12th summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in this Philippines resort city, told Thai News Agency that the joint development between the three countries which had been stalled for a while would help improve the livelihood of people in the three southernmost border provinces.

It would give an opportunity to people in the three provinces -- Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani -- to play a role in their own development, he said.

Government leaders of the three Southeast Asian countries on Friday took part in the 2nd Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) meeting here in which Gen. Surayud said the inclusion of the three Thai provinces into one of the adopted four economic corridors would help create job opportunities in the violence-plagued region.

The IMT-GT meeting agreed to implement flagship projects and a five-year roadmap, beginning this year, which calls for the strengthening of infrastructure linkages in other corridors.

Gen. Surayud also expressed satisfaction that no untoward incident took place on National Children's Day Saturday in Thailand.

TNA