The cabinet has approved an economic package worth more than 100 billion baht to stimulate the economy at the village and tambon levels as proposed by the Finance Ministry.
In the first project, two state banks will extend 7-year loans of up to 1 million baht to each village fund, totalling 60 billion baht.
The two banks are the Government Savings Bank and the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives.
Interest rates are zero in the first two years and the equivalent of the banks' financial costs plus 1% a year for the third to seventh years.
The funds must charge their members the same rates and may not use the money to refinance existing debts.
The government will compensate the two banks for the interest, totalling 2.48 billion baht.
The second project involves giving each of the 7,255 tambons 5 million baht, totalling 36.27 billion baht, to implement investment projects in their communities.
Villagers will decide what projects they would like to implement and submit proposals to the governors.
The projects must not be the same or similar to what authorities are carrying out in the areas.
The money for the second project will come from the contingency budget.
The third project involves accelerating disbursements totalling 40 billion baht of existing state investment projects, especially those under 1 million baht each, by the end of this year.
Investment projects worth more than 1 million baht each will also be disbursed in the first quarter.