Yingluck: 3.3 bln USD needed for recovery from devastating flood

About 100 billion baht (3.3 billion U.S. dollars), will be needed to restore areas devastated by floods in northern and central Thailand, the country's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Monday. In addition, the government will have to spend large sums of money to fix and strengthen Thailand's entire water management system. And more money is needed to restore the extensively damaged industrial and agricultural sectors, she added Government agencies would have to review their budget spending plans. Emphasis would be given to investments in the economic sector, Yingluck said. The cabinet will have to approve a recovery budget of 80 billion baht (2.56 billion U.S. dollars) and the government is willing to ask for a loan if necessary, according to a statement from the Flood Relief Operation Center. Earlier on Monday, Finance Minister Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala said the flood, which has been ravaging Thailand since late July, is expected to slow Thailand's GDP growth by 1 to 1.7 percent. Thirachai said the Finance Ministry will ask commercial and state-owned banks to relax debt repayment of companies in flooded industrial parks. According to Prasarn Trairatvorakul, governor of Bank of Thailand, companies located in the affected Industrial Estates owe a combined amount of 60 billion baht(1.9 billion U.S. dollars), or 0.75 percent of total outstanding loans. Last Tuesday, Prasarn said economic losses from flooding that began in late July ranged from 1.9 billion to 2.6 billion U.S. dollars. But the number has been rising as the government struggles to prevent the capital city of Bangkok from being submerged. More losses are expected as flood water poured into a key industrial park in central Thailand on Monday. Thousands of workers and other people living in and nearby the Nava Nakorn Industrial Park in Pathum Thani Province were ordered to evacuate, after efforts to prevent floodwater failed. Two hundred buses of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority and military vehicles were waiting in front of the site to take the workers to evacuation centers. Prime Minister said she felt sorry for flood-hit Nava Nakorn. "I feel so sorry that water has entered Nava Nakorn because we' ve been trying to prevent the industrial estate from flooding for quite a while," Yingluck said.