A meeting of the council economic ministers has decided to appeal the Administrative Court ruling bringing 76 industrial projects to a halt, deputy government spokesman Watchara Kannika said on Wednesday.
“The Ministry of Industry was directed to call for an urgent meeting of relevant offices to report back on the filing of an appeal.
''The premier wants the appeal filed urgently, within one or two days, to minimise any negative impact on the country’s investment climate,” Mr Watchara said.
The prime minister chaired today's meeting of economic mnisters.
The Administrative Court on Tuesday issued an injunction suspending the operating permits of 76 industrial projects — many of them at Rayong’s Map Ta Phut Industrial estate — which have received government approval.
Putthipong Punnakan, assistant to the PM’s Office minister, said the Ministry of Industry will call an urgent meeting to determine whether the appeal can be lodged today.
The appeal could be made in two parts, he said.
The first part would ask for court permission to allow industrial projects that have no impact on the environment to continue.
The second part would seek a temporary halt of projects that had problems with their their environmental impact assessments, Mr Putthipong said.
By appealing the court order the government would be showing it is trying to solve the problems of the private sector, he said.
Santi Vilassakdanont, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), said the court order to halt industrial projects would certainly affect the confidence of foreign investors looking to Thailand.
Mr Santi suggested state officials and private sector representatives should quickly meet to discuss a way out, as it could hurt the country’s investment environment in the long-term.
He said a number of foreign investors had already contacted the FTI asking about the Administrative Court’s ruling.
He said most of the industrial projects in the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate halted by the court order were upstream and import substitution industries that had helped the country lower imports by as much as 300 billion baht annually and created about 100,000 jobs.
Therefore, it was crucial for all parties to quickly resolve the problem.
The FTI chief said he would call an extraordinary meeting of the private sector’s Joint Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking to discuss possible solutions to the problem, which would be forwarded to the prime minister.
Asked about a report that PTT Plc, the country’s largest oil conglomerate, was planning to appeal the court order, Mr Santi said companies affected by the ruling have the right to seek justice.
He thought the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) would also appeal against the ruling to restore confidence among local and foreign investors.
IEAT chairman Prasan Tanprasert said on Tuesday that the ruling would definitely have a negative impact on the investment environment and the stalemate needs to be resolved soon. He said the agency would petition the court within 30 days.
The injunction serves to prevent all operations or activities by the projects pending an Administrative Court hearing into whether the recent approvals are in breach of the constitution.
The move follows a drawn-out battle between environmental activists and project companies.
The court cited the National Environment Board decision to declare three districts in Rayong a pollution control zone, saying pollution problems at Map Ta Phut and elsewhere had worsened.
"There are grounds to the petition and there is enough reason to warrant an injunction to protect the plaintiffs from further damage," the court said.
The suspension of operating permits followed an application by a coalition of environmental and community activists who claimed the permits violated Article 67 of the constitution, which says a project seen as harmful to the environment and people's health must be subject to public hearings before it could be endorsed.
The provision requires the government to set up an independent agency to give advice on the implementation of projects that could be harmful to people's health and the environment.
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