Thailand

The objectives of the Public Sector Reform Development Policy Loan (PSRDPL) are to assist the Royal Thai Government (RTG) in its response to the financial crisis and... Show More + to support institutional development in the public sector by: 1) improving the effectiveness of the public financial management framework through better governance and accountability; 2) enhancing the skills and performance of the civil service; and 3) improving quality and timeliness of service delivery. The closing date for the project will be extended from December 31, 2012 until June 30, 2013. The RTG has so far withdrawn USD100 million and intends to withdraw the remaining USD900 million in support of the implementation of their FY2013 budget; in particular, the extension will enable the withdrawals to be more aligned with the implementation of the RTG's investment plans for FY2013 (October 2012-September 2013) which will mostly be in the first half of 2013. The extension will also be helpful in lowering the cost of swapping the PSRDPL proceeds from US dollars to Thai Baht for the RTG. The baht swap market is quite thin and is therefore volatile. The extension of the PSRDPL closing date to June 2013 will make it difficult for speculative investors to predict when the Ministry of Finance (MOF) will make the swaps and how much each time. The extension will also allow the MOF to make swaps in smaller amounts at a time - which will not swing the swap market by too much which is undesirable by (and may hurt) other non-speculative clients in the swap market (e.g. exporters). This will be the second extension of the project, and a cumulative extension of nine months. Show Less -

The development objective of the Highways Management Project for Thailand is to enhance the efficiency, productive use, and management of the road network. Specifically,... Show More + it supports the commercialization of the road sector, strengthens the operations of the Department of Highways, helps preserve road assets, and improves competition and transparency in the award of contracts. The project implementation progress for activities is near completion, the project is rated unsatisfactory due to slow procurement process for activities under the additional financing. All civil works have been completed with the remaining fund of US$441,283 under this category. All periodic maintenance works were completed by September 2011 and the International Procurement Consultant (IPC) has been hired since March 9, 2011. The only remaining activity is Consultancy for the Design of Performance-Based Contracts (PBC), estimated at US$350,000. Show Less -

This project paper introduce the following changes to the Thailand Highways Management Project: (a) to reallocate the loan proceeds that remain uncommitted because of... Show More + the cancellation of two consultancies to finance additional activities (mainly civil works) within the same scope of the project and to modify the project outputs accordingly; (b) to extend the loan closing date to June 30, 2010 (which would be the third extension of the closing date); (c) to address the slight discrepancies in the formulation of the project development objective (PDO) between the project appraisal document (PAD) and loan agreement; and (d) to make amendments to the loan agreement accordingly. The restructuring is mainly to address the project implementation problems caused by the failed procurement processes for the two consultancies and to make productive use of the uncommitted loan funds for achieving the project outcomes. An additional financing to the project is being prepared in parallel to this restructuring. The additional financing will mainly support the widening of five priority national highway stretches, totaling 216 km. Given the uncertain timing of the parliamentary approval of this additional financing, it has been decided to process the restructuring first as the Department of Highways (DOH) is ready to use the uncommitted loan proceeds for the much-needed periodic maintenance works, which are also expected to be helpful for the businesses of small- and medium-sized construction enterprises at the time of economic downturn. Show Less -