“I’ve assigned the Foreign Ministry to coordinate with all ASEAN members to discuss measures to tackle transborder dust,” PM Paetongtarn said on her programme’s first broadcast, which aired on Sunday. — Photo THE NATION

BANGKOK — Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has assigned the Foreign Ministry to coordinate with other ASEAN nations to fight transborder smog and PM2.5 (fine particulate) air pollution.

Speaking on a pre-recorded broadcast of her TV programme on the NBT 2HD channel, Thailand’s Chance with PM Paetongtarn, she said air pollution was not just a domestic issue but a problem of the entire region. As a result, she said it required cooperation from all ASEAN nations to fight the dust.

“I’ve assigned the Foreign Ministry to coordinate with all ASEAN members to discuss measures to tackle transborder dust,” Paetongtarn said on her programme’s first broadcast, which aired on Sunday.

She did not elaborate when such a discussion would be held.

She added that it required steps of diplomatic protocol to plan such talks but ties among leaders of the nations would allow them to be concluded soon and smoothly.

She said her government has priorised tackling the PM2.5 issue since she took office.

Paetongtarn said she learned from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency before she attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, from January 20 to 24 that the PM2.5 situation would worsen. As a result, she said, she instructed all agencies concerned to prepare measures to deal with the situation.

Among these, the Industry Ministry has implemented measures to prevent sugarcane farmers burning their plantations to facilitate harvests. The Agriculture Ministry has also issued measures to reduce burning of harvest by-products by farmers.

She said the seven-day free rides on buses and trains in Bangkok provided by the Transport Ministry also helped reduce hotspots in the capital a lot.  — THE NATION/ANN