Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed nine state agencies to speed up the use of rubber in a bid to lift domestic demand which will help shore up falling rubber prices.
The prime minister wants the agencies to quickly approve the disbursement of a combined budget of 16.9 billion baht and spend the money to buy rubber sheets and latex from farmers by the end of the current fiscal year ending Sept 30, said government spokesperson Sansern Kaewkamnerd.
The government has set aside a 16.9-billion-baht budget to finance the purchase of 22,321 tonnes of concentrated latex and 2,952.66 tonnes of dry rubber sheets.
The nine organisations are the Agriculture Ministry, Defence Ministry, Transport Ministry, Education Ministry, Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, Public Health Ministry, Interior Ministry, Tourism and Sports Ministry and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
Gen Prayut has instructed the agencies to get their budget out before the fiscal year is over because he wants the agencies' plans to use rubber to begin immediately and be completed by next year, said Lt Gen Sansern.
The plans will help relieve the rubber glut, which is partly to blame for free-falling rubber prices.
Among the 23 products the agencies plan to use include rubber weir bags, rubber bearing pads, rubber water pipes, rubber waterproof strips, sheets used in livestock housing flooring as well as boots and gloves.
The Royal Irrigation Department, for instance, is looking to use 100 tonnes of rubber supplied by the Rubber Authority of Thailand mixed with asphalt to repair 3,000 kilometres of rural roads it operates and maintains, said Lt Gen Sansern.
Gen Prayut was also set up a fund to stabilise rubber prices. The country's five leading rubber exporters promise to each contribute 200 million baht to the fund, said Lt Gen Sansern.
The premier intends for the fund to be up and running soon to help cushion the volatility in rubber prices, he said.