The new Chonburi Provincial Governor Khun Pracha Terat met members of the many Rotary Clubs on the Eastern Seaboard at a special meeting on Thursday 21 December 2006 at the Srinium Restaurant just outside Chonburi. About 300 Rotarians attended the meeting.
Governor Pracha is the first Governor of Chonburi province who was actually born here, so he knows the area and its people better than any of his predecessors.
In his speech to the Rotarians Governor Pracha explained in depth about the unrest in the south of Thailand, as his last assignment as a governor was in the Narachiwat province. He gave his opinion why the problem has emerged and how to deal with it, to create peace in that region. He invited the Rotarians to join him in a trip to the Narachiwat province for them to experience first hand the situation and maybe be able to contribute to the ongoing peace process.
During the question time Mr. Niels Colov, president of the Rotary Club of Pattaya, now the biggest Rotary Club in this region with 50 members, asked Governor Pracha for his reasons to send out the letters to all entertainment places and many other businesses in Pattaya, demanding installation of CCTV systems, as this would cost the private sector more than 1 billion baht. President Niels explained that the businesses in Pattaya are suffering from an extreme bad economy due to the new visa rules, land transfer regulations, 50% fall in the tourist arrivals and rising crime, and that asking the private sector to pay big money for these CCTV systems and making it a condition for renewing business licenses, maybe was not fair.
Governor Pracha appealed to the business owners of Pattaya to understand that the CCTV systems would help prevent crime and if it happened the video on the cameras would help the police to apprehend the criminals. The foreigners, the Governor explained, were already used to the CCTV systems in their country of origin and understood probably better than the locals how effective such systems are. He understood the peoples concerns but hoped that everyone would join together to make Pattaya a safer and better place.
Governor Pracha appears to be a real action man with vision and energy, a lot of people have great hope in him to help our province develop in a positive direction.
