At 13:00 hrs. Mr. Tharit Pengdit, Director General, Department of Special Investigation, briefed the press on the outcome of the meeting of the Center For Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) earlier in the day, gist as follows:

1. Following the CMPO's recommendation to revoke the Emergency Decree, today the cabinet has approved revocation of the Emergency Decree and
replaced it with the Internal Security Act in Bangkok and nearby provinces. The Cabinet was of the view that the protest and overall political situation have been extricated. The use of the Internal Security Act will help project a positive image of Thailand, particularly in terms of business, investment, and tourism. The Internal Security Act will be in effective from 19 March to 30 April. The Prime Minister, in charged as director of the Internal Security Operations Command, will establish administrative body which consists of the police, military, and civil officials to handle situation that may affect security of the country.

2. The CMPO has received a report from the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) on economic impacts of the political situation due to the PDRC's protest. The consumer index and business confidence index have been decreasing, while numbers of tourists has been lower due to travel advisory and warning issued by many countries. The political uncertainty has resulted in slow down of consumption and investment. The consumer index is now at 61.4 point and the business confidence index has been gradually decreasing to 45.4. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has been down to 3.0-4.0%, which was lower than an expected figure of 4.0-5.0%. These  figures indicated great loss to the Thai economy. The CMPO urged the PDRC, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) and other groups to realize that the protest may have produced a long term damage to the Thai economy and wished all parties to find resolution by peaceful means.

3.  The CMPO has approved the measures introduced by the special committee chaired by the Secretary-General of NESDB to assist Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who were affected by the PDRC protest. Detail on assistance measures as follow:
    (1) Assistance will be provided to people and business inside and outside the protest areas, from the time the protest started until thereafter.
    (2) People who would like to receive assistance need to prove their personal injuries or losses by Ministry of Social Development
and Human Security.
    (3)  Assistance measures include:
          - Financial assistance: Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Thailand will coordinate with financial institutions to extend the due for principle payment and provide funds support.
          - Market promotion: Ministry of Commerce and Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP) will assist on increasing
channels of sale for goods and services.
          - Business capacity measures: Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Labour and OSMEP will assist on production cost reduction and improvement of production process.
          - Tax allowance: Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Interior will assist on time extension for income, value added, property taxes payments as well as for social security payments.
          - Short term payments assistance: Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Interior will assist on extending public utility payments, decreasing renting fee and allocating place for commerce.
          - Labour measures: Ministry of Labour will provide financial assistance on entrepreneurs in preserving the hiring status.
  (4) The CMPO assigned Office of the Permanent Secretary of the Prime Minister to be an informed center and coordinated with relevant agencies on assistances.

The CMPO will propose these measures to the cabinet for consideration.