March 26, 2013, at 1415hrs, at the Government Press Center, Naree Smosorn Building, Government House, Government Spokesperson Tosaporn Serirak gave a press conference following the cabinet meeting, that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra expressed her concern on the problems of drought and smog in the northern areas which became worsen during the past week particularly in Chiang Mai and Mae Hongson areas. PM Yingluck called on related Ministers to constantly report the situation to the cabinet, and planned on exercising more strict legal measures to tackle the problems.
In addition, PM Yingluck ordered Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and Ministry of Commerce to attend to the distribution of domestic fruits which was expected to yield 600,000-700,000 tons this year.
PM Yingluck also mentioned about her official visits to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea during March 21-25, 2013 that the Thai delegation had a chance to observe on agricultural productions in which New Zealand had expertise particularly kiwi fruits orchard, the national fruit of New Zealand which were produced for export all year round.
The Thai delegation also observed a New Zealand’s dairy farm that was managed with the computerized system with microchips implanted in the dairy cows. The computerized system enabled each farm to raise 500-1,000 cows per only 3 cattlemen with the milk yield of 25 liters/cow/day whereas, the milk yield in Thailand was around 10 liters/cow/day. Exchanges on technology and know-how had been made during PM Yingluck’s visit, and New Zealand agreed to send their experts over to Thailand for further assistance.
On the Papua New Guinea visit, PM Yingluck stated that Thailand and Papua New Guinea shared the same interests in agriculture. Papua New Guinea bought 50,000 tons of rice from Thailand out of the domestic consumption of 150,000 tons in total volume, and requested for Thailand’s assistance in the know-how of rice cultivation for domestic consumption.
Both countries also agreed to cooperate on the promotion of tourism such as launch of direct flights between Bangkok and Papua New Guinea, and medical tourism in Thailand. PM Yingluck also invited the President of Papua New Guinea to attend the 2nd Asia-Pacific Water Summit in Thailand in May 2013.