Thailand pumps money into energy projects serving economic growth

Bangkok (VNA) - Energy Minister of Thailand Supattanapong Punmeechaow is urging officials to speed up the capital spending of 300 billion THB (some 8.9 billion USD) to help restore the COVID-19-ravaged economy.

The budget allocation is scheduled for 2021-2026 to support energy projects, ranging from upstream and downstream oil and gas operations to petrochemical and power generation businesses, in both the state and private sectors. Among the prominent projects are those for renewable energy development, now part of the government's agenda to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The Thai Government also plans to spend money on developing electric vehicle infrastructure and modernising the power grid network.

Local officials will continue with the "Energy for All" renewable scheme, which encourages communities and businesses to jointly invest in power generation facilities using biomass and biogas as fuels.

Kulit Sombatsiri, permanent secretary for energy, said the government will also spend money developing new petrochemical industries which will not only depend on oil and gas but also agricultural products over the next three decades.

This year, Thailand has so far spent almost 97 billion THB during lockdown periods to aid subsidy programmes to relieve people's living costs./.