The Ministry of Interior, via the Provincial Administration Department, will begin nationwide informal debt mediations, as part of the “debt solving market place” program, at provincial halls and municipal offices on Monday.

Kittiratt Na-Ranong, chief advisor to the prime minister, will preside over the program launch ceremony, at the Nakhon Nonthaburi municipal office, tomorrow morning, said Government Spokesman Chai Wacharonke.

According to the “debt solving market place” program, informal debtors and their lenders, who have registered to settle their debts since December 1^st, will meet at the halls or offices to settle their debts, with representatives from the Government Savings Bank and the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, Pico Finance and the Office of Attorney-General acting as mediators.

Since the government launched the policy to solve the informal debt problem, and invited borrowers and their creditors to apply for state help in solving their outstanding debts, 126,882 debtors and 97,472 money lenders registered in the first 43 days. The total amount of debt in the program is 8.11 billion baht. 8,456 cases have, so far, entered the mediation process and 2,896 cases have been resolved.

Chai said that debt mediation will take place once a month, either on Saturday or Sunday of the second week of each month.

In addition to the debt mediation services, he said that other services will be available, such as an employment service for people looking for permanent, part-time jobs or work-from-home jobs, as well as free legal counselling for members of the public.

Chai also said that Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has instructed police and local administration officials to provide security to informal debtors, to ensure they are protected from harassment by money lenders.