Former Pulo leader unveils plan for locals

Former Pulo leader unveils plan for locals

Sama-ae: Keen to help region
Sama-ae: Keen to help region

Five years after being released from jail, Sama-ae Thanam, a former leader of the Patani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo), is playing a crucial role to advance an investment project on biogas power plants in five southern provinces.

He believes the project will create jobs and contribute to the region's economic development, goals that will eventually help settle the southern unrest and improve the situation there.

Speaking to the media for the first time on Thursday since his release from prison in 2015, Mr Sama-ae said he is now coordinating with the government, business people and local communities to build twenty 200-megawatt plants in the provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Satun.

The locations for the project have been chosen, and public hearings were conducted in all areas, he said, adding the project won the approval of every community concerned.

The companies investing in the project have already provided a 30% downpayment while the project awaits approval from the provinces' energy offices, Mr Sama-ae said.

One key factor in the southern unrest is the fact that parents aren't capable of covering their children's education costs, which left these young people vulnerable to being lured into insurgency, he said.

Aside from getting hired for work, villagers will also be allowed to hold 10% of the project's shares and grow grass to supply to the power plants at a guaranteed price of 1,000 baht per tonne, he said.

The plants generate energy through the degradation of Napier grass.

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