19 more projects can seek court permission

After yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the four-party committee had reported on the status of each suspended project to the Cabinet. Of the 65 projects, 42 have been given the status of operating, completed construction or under construction, while the remaining 23 have either not sought permission or have yet to start construction.

"Of the 42 projects, 19 come under the same criteria as the 11 projects earlier allowed to resume operations," he said.

"Meanwhile, the committee has proposed that the remaining 23 projects seek court permission to continue, but they will have to shoulder any future risks if their projects are not able to start operations if they can't meet the requirements of the Constitution's Article 67 [2]," he said.

When asked how investors could be stopped from pulling their money out of Map Ta Phut, Abhisit said that if facts were presented to the court for consideration, and if some or all of them got the green light to proceed, the problem would be less severe.

He said the seven projects that have already been cancelled were the hardest hit and the government was looking to see what could be done about the damages. Abhisit added that they have not discussed what would happen if the seven projects were to sue the government for compensation.

When asked if uncertainty over damages would affect the economic goals for 2010, the premier said the project delays might have some impact but the most important thing to do was to clarify rules to prevent a problem for future investments. He said there was no need to adjust next year's economic goals yet because the pros and cons and the situation needed to be assessed first.

The 42 projects have a combined investment of Bt185.032 billion and employ 25,489 people, while the remaining 23 projects have a combined investment of Bt42.251 billion and plan to hire 5,569 workers.

Industry Minister Charnchai Chairungruang said his ministry had proposed four criteria for the comparison of the status and details of the 65 projects with those of the 11 projects allowed to resume.

The criteria are:

l They should have received environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval before August 24, 2007;

l They should be related to the improvement of the environment or enhancing the efficiency of machinery;

l They should help reduce the impact on environment;

l They should not be listed as activities that have a serious impact on the local community.

He said facts about every project needed to be presented to the court. If the court considered any of these projects in line with the 11 resumed projects, it would probably withdraw its ruling on a project-by-project basis.

Abhisit said the four-party panel would submit its comments on announcements made by the National Environment Board as well as the Natural Resource and Environment Ministry to the Cabinet next week. This will help EIA and health impact assessment (HIA) procedure to move more smoothly.

Meanwhile, about 20 Japanese investors met Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu at Government House yesterday.

"We came here today because we wanted to listen to the government's explanation. More importantly, we want to insist that we have no intention to harm Thailand and are willing to comply with every environmental regulation," one of the Japanese investors, who chose not to be named, said.

He said there were nine projects, mostly in chemical, metal and steel industries, belonging to Japanese companies worth a combined investment of more than Bt100 billion.

"If the government cannot resolve this problem soon, it will affect our confidence and future investment. Of course, we will have to consider if our future investment should remain in Thailand or be shifted to other countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore," the investor added.

Korbsak said the government was planning to compensate suspended projects for loses. "However, we still don't know how to compensate them because we have yet to find out the real losses," he said.

Srisuwan Janya, an activist allied to the villagers, said he would lodge a complaint with the Central Administrative Court ordering officials at eight government agencies to stop making comments that would affect the ongoing trial.

The eight agencies include the ministries of Natural Resources and Environment and Industry as well as the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand.

He also plans to ask for a court

 hearing to investigate an incident under which villagers had been paid to withdraw their names from existing complaints.

He said he would also ask the Law Society of Thailand to consider revoking the licence of a number of lawyers whom he accused of paying the villagers to withdraw their petitions.