Draft Ministerial Regulations on designing the appearance of commemorative coin honouring His Majesty the King Bhumibol Aduladej on the occasion that the World Intellectual Property Organization presenting the “Global Leaders Award on Intellectual Property” to His Majesty the King
The Cabinet approved the principle of drafting Ministerial Regulation on designing the appearance of commemorative coin honouring His Majesty the King Bhumibol Aduladej on the occasion that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presenting the “Global Leaders Award on Intellectual Property” to His Majesty the King as the Ministry of Finance proposed and referred the matter to the Council of the State to review and proceed.
The Ministry of Finance proposed that on the occasion that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presenting “the Global Leaders Award on intellectual property” to His Majesty the King on 14 January 2010, the Ministry of Finance agreed to issue commemorative coin to honour the genius of His Majesty the King in developing innovation for the good of Thailand and the world, for example Chaipattana Aerator and Royal Rainmaking. His Majesty’s works were practical and worth being the world intellectual property.
The Cabinet granted Thai Airways International Public Company Limited to apply the arbitration clause in order to settle the dispute of the loan agreement for payment of six Airbus A330-300 within the determined time according to the long-term Asset Based Financing for the first Airbus, which had to be finished within 4 months after the refinancing date, 28 February 2010, as proposed by the Ministry of Transport.
The Ministry of Transport was reported by Thai Airways International Public Company Limited that;
1. According to the resolution of the Cabinet on 28 July 2009 determining “No.1 All agreements that state organizations commit with the private sector both in Thailand or foreign countries, no matter if it is administrative agreement, the content should not be written to allow raising the dispute to the arbitrator to make a judgment. However, if there are some problems, necessities, or requests from the partner of the agreement which could not be avoided, it had to be raised to the Cabinet to review case by case.”
Since Thai Airways International Public Company Limited was a public company limited having the Ministry of Finance as the big shareholder, it was considered one of state organizations, as a state enterprise, affiliated with the Ministry of Transport and the company had to follow the resolution of the Cabinet on 28 July 2009. However, during the negotiation on the agreement to seek the long term loan Asset Based Financing for payment of six Airbus A330-A300 between the Thai Airways International Public Company Limited and BNP Paribas in association with Calyon, as syndicated loan providers, and Export Credit Agencies, as loan guarantor (called “Loan Agreement”), which determined in the agreement allowing the dispute to be raised to the arbitrator to make the judgment, Thai Airways Public Company Limited notified the syndicated loan providers,BNP Paribas and Calyon, as well as ECDG, the lead guarantor, to acknowledge the resolution of the Cabinet on 28 July 2009 and had tried to negotiate with the partners of the agreement to take the arbitration clause out of the draft loan but the negotiation on this point was not successful. Traditionally, the long term ECA Financing, BNP Paribas and Calyon, which were the syndicated loan providers assigned ECDG, the lead guarantor, to do and negotiate on the loan agreement instead, the syndicated loan providers then accepted and followed directions and objectives of ECGD on the determined points of the loan agreement, including determining arbitration clause application to the loan agreement.
2. ECGD, the lead guarantor, corresponded to Thai Airways International Public Company Limited to inform ,in summary, the agreement on the dispute settlement was a significant part of the standard agreement of financial support of the ECAs having the right to settle the dispute with the arbitration in the case that the judgment of the British court (which was the court that had the right to review the dispute settlement with the arbitration that occurred because of the financial assistance transaction of ECAs) could not enforce the law in the local laws area (in this case it meant Thai laws) and when Thailand became Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 or New York Conventionม ECGD, therefore, aimed to apply the arbitration clause to settle the dispute on the long term loan agreement for the payment of six Airbus A330-300.
3. Thai Airways International Public Company Limited reviewed and saw that seeking the approval from the Cabinet to apply the arbitration clause to the dispute settlement on the long term Asset Based Financing for payment of six Airbus 330-300 as the Export Credits Agencies (ECAs), which was the loan guarantor, insisted to keep the arbitration clause in the loan agreement. And if Thai Airways could not apply the arbitration clause to the dispute settlement on the long term loan agreement, it would highly effect loan transaction this time and next time. The ECAs which had Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) as the Lead Guarantor might review cancellation of the loan guarantee for payment of six Airbus A330-300 of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited and it would cause Thai Airways International Public Company Limited to encounter the problem in seeking the long term loan for the payment of the rest Airbus 330-300.
4. The Board of Directors of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited in the second meeting of the year 2010, on 25 January 2010, approved and endorsed a resolution allowing to apply the arbitration to the dispute settlement of seeking the long term Asset Based Financing for payment of six Airbus 330-300 and referred the matter to the Cabinet for further consideration.
Thai Airways International Public Company Limited already issued the long term loan agreement for four Airbus A330-300 under the condition of the loan agreement that Thai Airways International Public Company Limited had to seek the approval of the Cabinet allowing to apply the arbitration clause to the dispute settlement of the loan agreement and had to finish it within 4 months since the refinancing date. The payment date of the first Airbus was 28 February 2010 (as for the second, third, and fourth, the payment date would fall on 22 April 2010)
The Cabinet acknowledged and agreed with the proposals of the Ministry of Finance as follows;
1. Acknowledged the method of budget allocation to support living cost reduction phase 3, from 1 January — 31 March 2010.
2. Agreed to extend the period of conducting measures to reduce living cost of the public until 30 June 2010 according to the principle of measure 2, assigned state enterprises; the Metropolitan Electricity Authority, the Provincial Electricity Authority, the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority, and the State Railway of Thailand to make loan for compensating their incomes lost during conducting the measure and directed the Bureau of the Budget to consider the fiscal budget allocation and to repay both the principle and the interest, including expenses occurred from making loan of the 4 state enterprises.
The Cabinet acknowledged the result of testing the GT200 bomb detector as the Ministry of Science and Technology proposed.
The Cabinet had endorsed a resolution on 2 February 2010 to assign the Ministry of Science and Technology and other concerned organizations to jointly vet and test the effectiveness of the GT200 and other equipments having the same features, determine the framework to be acceptable for all sides, and report the testing result to the Cabinet urgently.
To test the effectiveness of the GT200, the Ministry of Science and Technology set up a committee to test the effectiveness of the GT200 bomb detector, comprising of representatives from the National Institute of Metrology, from the National Statistical Office, Scientific Crime Detection Division of the Royal Thai Police, the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, academics from state and private sectors (Chulalongkorn University, Mahidol University, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thai Embedded Systems Association, and the Institute of Field Robotics), and other organizations utilizing the equipment (the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Interior, and The Ministry of Justice). The chairman of the house committee on security affairs was also invited to be a judge.
On this task the committee of testing the effectiveness of the GT200 bomb detector operated as follows;
- On 4 February 2010, the committee set up the first meeting of the year 2010. The meeting jointly determined the framework in testing the effectiveness of the GT20 bomb detector and issued the plan of testing
- On 8 February 2010, the second meeting of the year 2010 was held and the meeting jointly considered the testing process, amounts of examples, and examples of substances, amount of measurement, the venue, the date, and assigned the committee and/or the representatives from the organizations utilizing this equipment, the academics, the organization concerning testing of the effectiveness of the GT200 bomb detector, comprise of the chairman of the test, staff working on hiding materials, staff working on searching, the central committee, and the staff organizing the test.
- On 14 February 2010 the committee conducted the test of the GT200bomb detector effectiveness.
- On 15 February 2010 the third meeting of the year 2010 was organized. The meeting summarized the testing result of the GT200 bomb detector effectiveness and endorsed a resolution to report the result of the test to the Cabinet as assigned.
The Cabinet acknowledged the operating result of the Thai People Funds for Haiti Casualties’ Relief Committee and assigned concerned organizations to operate in accordance with the resolution of the committee of the Thai People Funds Haiti Casualties’ Relief as Prime Minister attached to the Prime Minister's Office Veerachai Veeramethikul, the chairman of the Thai People Funds for Haiti Casualties’ Relief proposed;
The committee of the Thai People Funds for Haiti Casualties’ Relief held the second meeting of committee in the year 2010 on 18 February 2010 at the Office of the Permanent Secretary, the Prime Minister's Office. The gist of the meeting as follows.
1. Total donation amount of the Thai People Funds for Haiti Casualties’ Relief The meeting acknowledged the donation amount of the Thai People Funds on 17 February 2010, 16.30 hrs, the total amount was 66,212,626.44 baht. The Thai People Funds still opened for donation through Krungthai Bank account until 31 March 2010. Many state enterprises, provinces, banks from both state and private sectors donated their money and opened for donation and sent the donated money to the Thai People Funds.
2. Expediting the rest of rice The meeting acknowledged as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the World Food Program (WFP) notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Maersk Line Co.,Ltd. agreed to support expense of expediting 3,525 tons from the port in Thailand to the destination port as the WFP determined. The New Zealand government also agreed to give 1 million New Zealand dollars, which the WFP would spend on the expense of expediting another 1,203-ton rice. The meeting also agreed with the framework of expediting rice to help Haiti casualties phase 2 and phase 3, all together were 4,728 tons.
The meeting acknowledged the advance poll asking about the needs of the Republic of Haiti from the first group of Thai representatives in Haiti;
1. Public Health - The Republic of Haiti was facing the problem of contaminated water, unclean hospitals, and filthy operation room. The need for medical profession decreased as most of Haiti people went back to receive medical treatment from state hospitals. There were many medical supplies but lack of well management. In case of serious patients, field hospitals having supplies from the United States and the medical team from Mexico were provided to help. The current need was the medical team for artificial limb surgery. In term of psychiatry, the problem had not been found yet, but might be in the next 2-3 months. The illnesses after the coming of April might be the illnesses deriving from contaminated water problem. Moreover, at the moment, it rained and it was necessary to find the way to prevent the Malaria. The team of doctors and nurses from the Ministry of Public Health were ready, there were 3 teams, 10 -15 persons each. During the first phase, one team was ready to go there within March 2010.
2. Construction - The Republic of Haiti was facing the issue of homelessness. The buildings in which they lived had many cracks. Most had to stay in tents on the street, and the problem could be more intense, especially in April, which was the rainy season. The need for tents was quite high. As for a large number of buildings, which had collapsed, the value of recovery would be very high and it might take more than 10 years. Sending mechanic soldiers to help might be difficult as it was far-distant, being obstructed by geography and the moving cost was very high. The method for helping might be offering aids through the United Nations.
3. Agriculture - The Republic of Haiti still needed grains. At the moment the United Nations provided assistance on education, academics, and school construction. The method for working on these matters, therefore, might be cooperating with the United Nations by sending agricultural technical officers to give advices on long term cultivation.
The Cabinet approved the Anti-Money Laundering Office to apply the MOU on cooperation in exchanging financial information to prevent and suppress money laundering as a model for negotiating on cooperation with other countries and granted the Secretary-General to the Anti-Money Laundering Office, as a representative of Thailand, to sign the mentioned MOU. The Draft MOU was not considered an agreement, according to Measure 190 section 2 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand as the Justice Minister, head of the Anti-Money Laundering Office, suggested.
--Cabinet Meeting (Abhisit Vejjajiva) January 23, 2010--