BANGKOK (The Nation/Asia News Network): Despite kicking off 211 out of 226 policies that he had vowed to implement before being elected, Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt (pic) gave himself only a 5 out of 10 grade for his first year in office.
Speaking at a press conference at City Hall on Tuesday (June 14), Chadchart, a former Minister of Transport, said that he gave himself only half of the full score because 11 policies have not been put into action yet.
These 11 policies, mostly pertaining to the economy and traffic, have not been implemented because they require cooperation from other related sectors, he explained.
He added that some laws, like those pertaining to community mobile libraries or breastfeeding rooms, have been put on hold since they do not fit with people's behaviour nowadays.
Chadchart said he would utilise technology to facilitate working with government officials like Traffy Fondue, an application in which people can contact, lodge a complaint, and get feedback directly from the officials.
Traffy Fondue has received up to 300,000 complaints from the public, and this demonstrates that people trust Bangkok to resolve their issues, he said.
He said that in his first year, he aimed to implement policies on a smaller scale to ensure the outcomes would not be too serious in case they failed, adding that he would expand them in the coming years.
Chadchart urged leading figures in the district offices to visit places where problems exist and fix them rather than just commanding those under their supervision to do so.
“If we find problems but do not fix them, this means we cheat the people,” he said.
He said that dealing with fraud was the most difficult issue, adding that he had received several complaints from people.
Correction of this problem must begin at the managerial levels, he added.
In response to criticism that he can only resolve small issues, Chadchart said that such small problems are what Bangkokians were encountering, adding that he was working with bigger policies in parallel.
Chadchart vowed to make Bangkok liveable for everyone, with his policies covering nine dimensions: security, travel, health, creativity, environment, city structure, management, education, and economy.
