PHANGNGA: Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin plans to have small mobile cabinet meetings upcountry to listen to the problems and the needs of locals.
Mr Srettha was in this southern Andaman coastal province to meet entrepreneurs and the community's business sector after his trip to Phuket on Friday when he pledged to boost tourism.
He said the cabinet led by the Pheu Thai Party will begin its work immediately after the new government is formed and His Majesty the King issues a royal command appointing the new cabinet ministers.
He said the meetings with the private sector and locals in Phuket and Phangnga were important for him to get first-hand feedback, and had sparked the idea to organise small mobile cabinet meetings in several provinces.
"The mobile cabinet meeting should be small so it is easy for the group to move around," he said.
Small mobile cabinet meetings will focus on specific issues depending on the needs of the targeted provinces, he said.
In Phangnga on Saturday, Mr Srettha and the Pheu Thai Party's tourism policy committee led by Dr Prommin Lertsuridej met Lertsak Ponklin, president of the Phangnga Tourism Association and members of the private sector to discuss the province's needs regarding tourism, including extending tourism visas for certain nations.
Mr Lertsak said the visa extension will help stimulate tourism in the province and also encourage the new government to improve transport links between Phuket and Phangnga and Phangnga and Krabi.
He also backed plans to build a provincial airport.
He said that during the first six months, Phangnga earned 6.3 billion baht from tourism, with 40% of more than 18,000 hotel rooms booked, but if tourists had longer visas, they might tour provinces along the Andaman coast.
Mr Srettha, who acknowledged his was the first prime ministerial visit to the province in a number of years, agreed and said the government would extend tourist visas from 30 days to 90 days for arrivals from targeted countries including China, India and Russia.