Move Forward party leader Pita Limjaroenrat has assured leaders of local administrative organisations that his future government’s decentralisation policy will not be extreme but, with public participation, the prime objective is to bring about prosperity in rural areas.
Pita met with leaders of the Provincial Administrative Organisations, Tambon Administrative Organizations and the National Municipal Association of Thailand today (Thursday), to brief them about the coalition’s decentralisation policies and to hear their opinions.
He likened local administrative organisations to the base of a pyramid, which is in close contact with the people and, therefore, should be familiar with the problems.
He told the local leaders that, in the first year of the new administration, his government will focus on distributing prosperity to rural areas and enabling access to state services, before moving on to the decentralisation of administration, so local administrative bodies will be more independent of state control with their own budgets and sources of revenue.
Regarding the terms in office of local administrators, Pita said that they should be decided by local people, in cases where the administrators are elected.
During the meeting, the president of the National Municipal Association of Thailand congratulated the Move Forward party on winning the most House seats, while Pita thanked them for their contribution in amending the Constitution to free local administrative organisations from state control.
