The cabinet on Tuesday (July 25) decided to allocate 1.8 billion baht from the Central Fund to promote the use of rubber by various government bodies.

The fund is to be distributed among three ministries:

1.5 billion baht for the Ministry of Defence
164.4 million baht for the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
135 million baht for the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

The Defence Ministry plans to use the 1.5 billion baht fund to purchase rubber mattresses; build multi-purpose lawns using rubber as raw material, use rubber in road construction and in flooring ponds in rice fields.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports plans to use more rubber in covering the floors of sport stadiums whereas the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry plans to use more rubber in making rubber gloves and rubber floors in cattle farms and to acquire rubber mattresses for its guest houses and living quarters for seminar participants.

Nattaporn Jatusripitak, an adviser to the Commerce Minister, said that the allocation of this small fund was just a short-term measure. For the long-term solution, he said, the Rubber Authority of Thailand was assigned to conduct researches and to explore ways to come up with new innovations which rely on rubber as production material.

1.8 billion baht set aside to promote use of rubber - Thai PBS English News