Science And Technology Ministry Supports The Setting Up Of An Oil Palm School In Krabi

[Jai Dee]

Science and Technology Ministry supports the setting up of an oil palm school in Krabi

The Science and Technology Ministry is supporting the establishment of an oil palm school in Krabi (กระบี่) Province.

Science and Technology Minister Pravich Rattanapien (ประวิช รัตนเพียร) informed that Krabi is one of the provinces in the Andaman region that has the capability to grow oil palms on 900,000 rai of land. With this potential, the Cabinet has agreed to push Krabi as the bio-diesel production center of Thailand.

The ministry is cooperating with Prince of Songkhla University to set up a model of bio-diesel production plant, which is worth 16 million baht. The ministry will help taking care of the oil quality assessment. Mr. Pravich also views that an oil palm school should be set up to provide people with knowledge on how to produce this alternative energy. Besides, he remarked that Thailand should follow the current global trend on producing fuel without pollution.

In the meantime, Energy Minister Viset Choopiban (วิเศษ จูภิบาล) and the Finance Ministry are jointly determining the oil palm policies. Thus, the private companies will be given the right information to help them make the correct decisions.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 25 August 2006

[timber]

"Surat Thani shows potential to be oil palm production hub"

The head of the Thai Chamber of Commerce indicated that Surat Thani should be the hub of

biodiesel production and research. They currently have a oil palm research center. I would think

that they would have all of the stuff in one spot. Maybe politics at work. I come from the Canadian Bush and its hard to believe the problems you can have with communication because of distance.