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BANGKOK - THAILAND earmarked more than 20 billion baht ($877 million) in grants to rural enterprises on Tuesday, a striking revival of policies introduced by ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to stimulate the rural economy.
'Next week, I will propose more measures to boost the grassroots economy,' Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.
Most of the cash agreed on Tuesday will go in one-off payments to villages to be spent on development projects or business ventures.
In addition, 1,600 villages would also have access to as much as 1 million baht each in cheap loans to start small businesses and farmers would be forgiven a total of 1 billion baht of debt, Mr Surapong said.
Rural stimulus policies, one of the main reasons for Thaksin's landslide 2001 and 2005 election victories, were axed after the 2006 coup by the army-appointed government, which viewed them as an example of Mr Thaksin's profligacy.
The openly pro-Thaksin People Power Party (PPP) won the December election largely on promises that it would reintroduce such schemes.
Government economists also hope they will stimulate domestic consumption to counter an expected slow-down in Thailand's key export sector due to the cooling US economy.
As well as approving major infrastructure investment projects earlier this month, Bangkok has announced new tax measures to help listed companies, the property and housing sectors and office workers.
The overall stimulus package will cost 40-50 billion baht a year, a figure that would be more than offset by greater tax receipts if economic growth picked up from 4.8 percent to 6 percent this year, Mr Surapong says. -- AFP
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