Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Cancelled municipality constituency

Within the definitions of constituencies for the municipal councils it is nothing special to find changes of the original boundaries, probably for cases when the population numbers within the original constituencies has changed too much and would make the value of each vote differ too much between them.

However, there is one single announcement in the Royal Gazette in which an earlier constituency definition is completely canceled, and shortly thereafter a new definition is published.
  • October 10 2009 - original definition of boundaries [Gazette]
  • November 11 2009 - cancellation of boundaries [Gazette]
  • January 13 2010 - second definition of boundaries [Gazette]
The municipality affected is Phak Mai subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลผักไหม) in Sikhoraphum district, Surin province. The municipality was just created on July 31 2009 by upgrading the TAO Phak Mai.

The reason for the cancellation of the original constituencies was that these don't have a continuous area. Constituency 1, which was supposed to cover the villages 1, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10, would have made the area of Mu 10 to be an exclave within constituency 2. Therefore, Mu 4 has to be moved into constituency 1 to make the area non-interrupted. Just a pity I have no map of the village boundaries within this subdistrict, so I could actually see the difference instead of just trying to get it from the text.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Laem Chabang city status officially announced

Only two months after it was decided in the board to consider draft laws, the upgrade of Laem Chabang to a city municipality was officially announced already. The board meeting on this issue was on April 22, the announcement was signed on May 24 by Deputy Ministry of Interior Bunchong Wongtrairat (บุญจง วงศ์ไตรรัตน์), and then finally published on June 25 [Gazette].

Unlike most of the municipality upgrade announcements, the PDF does not include a map showing the boundaries of the municipality. Though this map seems to be not part of the announcement itself - it has no page number, and is normally accompanied with the announcement by the ministry which looks different than the gazette announcement - in most of the municipal status changes these additional pages are included in the PDF at the Royal Gazette database, even though at a status upgrade the boundaries remain unchanged.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Deputy province governor reshuffle

On June 10, the transfer of 8 deputy province governors (รองผู้ว่าราชการจังหวัด) was announced, including some which additionally become acting province governors (รักษาราชการแทนผู้ว่าราชการจังหวัด), some being effective June 14 and some June 21. The following list is compiled from an English article in the Nation and a Thai article by RYT9.
  • Charnwit Wasayangkuoon (นายชาญวิทย์ วสยางกูร), deputy governor in Nakhon Ratchasima to become deputy governor in Sisaket and acting governor of Mukdahan (the second one he was already appointed earlier).
  • Phairot Saengphuwong (นายไพโรจน์ แสงภู่วงษ์), deputy governor in Chiang Mai to become deputy governor in Chumphon and acting governor of Chumphon.
  • Witthaya Kamon (นายวิทยา กามนต์), deputy governor in Samut Prakan to become deputy governor in Nakhon Ratchasima.
  • Chatchai Uthaiphan (นายชาติชาย อุทัยพันธ์), deputy governor in Surin to become deputy governor in Samut Prakan.
  • Pititam Titimontri (นายปิติธรรม ฐิติมนตรี), deputy governor in Sisaket to become deputy governor in Surin.
  • Nivit Aroonrat (นายนิวิทย์ อรุณรัตน์), deputy governor in Sukhothai to become deputy governor in Phuket.
  • Smith Palawatvichai (นายสมิทธิ์ ปาลวัฒน์วิไชย), deputy governor in Phuket to become deputy governor in Sukhothai.
  • Wonkon Yokying (นายวรกร ยกยิ่ง), deputy governor in Chumphon to become deputy governor in Chiang Mai.
Phuket Gazette already reported on Nivit reporting to his new position in Phuket, where he in fact had worked before already on a different position.

The reason for appointing an acting governor in Chumphon is that Karan Supphakijlekhakarn (การัณย์ ศุภกิจวิเลขการ) has resigned on June 9 to take up a post as director of an institute promoting royally-initiated projects. The acting governor Phairot will however certainly not become governor in the October reshuffle because he is tended to retire from government service in October.

Friday, June 25, 2010

District levels

When I looked around on the website of the Surat Thani provincial office of the Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA), one post in the forum caught my attention. Posted in January already and not receiving any answer by the webmaster the question reads
ไม่ทราบว่าหลักเกณฑ์การแบ่งเขตอำเภอของจังหวัด สุราษฎร์ว่าเป็นอำเภอขนาดเล็ก กลาง ใหญ่
หน่วยงานไหนเป็นผู้รับผิดชอบ ใครทราบช่วยบอกหน่อย เพราะต้องการข้อมูลทำวิทยานิพนธ์ด่วย
If I understand it correctly, the poster asks for the rules of the categorization of districts into small, medium and large, and which authority is responsible for this.

Last year I posted about district levels already, however at that time I found five levels, which seemed to be about the economic strength as well as population of the district. Trying to find more on the above mentioned three levels, I could find at DOPA a list of award winning district offices in the three categories - each with several photos of the inside of the district office. The one of Phachi district, Ayutthaya province, even includes a photo of the award badge.

At the website of Nakhon Pathom provincial office of local administration a news report lists the districts of this province with their category.
อำเภอขนาดใหญ่LargeMueang Nakhon Pathom, Sam Phran
อำเภอขนาดกลางMiddleNakhon Chaisi, Kamphaeng Saen, Bang Len
อำเภอขนาดเล็กSmallDon Tum, Phutthamonthon

Now, since there were the district office awards issued according to these three levels, I checked the report I wrote on this award last year. It also had three district levels then, and also listed the population numbers which qualify the three levels. Just sadly this does not fit with the district of Nakhon Pathom - as the levels change at 50,000 and 80,000, the three middle class districts should be at the highest level as well.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Bangkok district election results

On June 6 the first round of the district council elections were held in the northeastern districts of Bangkok. According to the article in the Nation, the results were a success to the Democrat-led government. However it is far from an indication of the results of a general elections, not only the low voter turnout of just 35%, but also the fact that not parties but candidates are elected and therefore their personal power-bases make it hard to extrapolate the real political preferences. The article also gives a little background on the district councils, as well as states the date for the elections in the remaining 36 district as being set for August 29.

One advantage of being rather late with presenting these results is that I discovered now the results form every district is also published in the Royal Gazette - however only the names and votes of all candidates, their party affiliation, the total number of eligible voters and of votes cast are not in these PDFs.
DistrictPopulationCouncillorsCandidatesWinning PartyGazette
Bang Kapi150,166824Democratsพิเศษ 77 ง Page 39-40
Lat Phrao122,371716Democratsพิเศษ 77 ง Page 41-42
Bueng Kum147,712718Democratsพิเศษ 77 ง Page 43-44
Wang Thong Lang115,713714Democratsพิเศษ 77 ง Page 45-46
Saphan Sung88,013715Democratsพิเศษ 77 ง Page 47-48
Khan Na Yao85,912714Phuea Thaiพิเศษ 77 ง Page 49-50
Bang Khen185,901816Democratsพิเศษ 77 ง Page 51-52
Chatuchak164,210819Democratsพิเศษ 77 ง Page 53-54
Lak Si114,180729Democratsพิเศษ 77 ง Page 55-56
Don Mueang165,433830Phuea Thaiพิเศษ 77 ง Page 57-58
Sai Mai178,637816Democratsพิเศษ 77 ง Page 59-60
Min Buri133,149714Mixedพิเศษ 77 ง Page 61-62
Khlong Sam Wa154,766816Democratsพิเศษ 77 ง Page 63-64
Lat Krabang152,528838Phuea Thaiพิเศษ 77 ง Page 65-67

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Arabic numerals in Royal Gazette announcements

While working through the Gazette announcements on the moves of district offices, I again noticed that there was a phase during which the announcement used the Arabic numerals instead of the Thai numerals. These announcements with the numerals I am used to are of course much easier to read for me.

The announcement which I noticed the Arabic numerals was the move of the district office Nong Chok, Phetchaburi in October 1944, when the office was relocated from Nong Chok subdistrict to Cha-Am subdistrict. When in December 1944 the district was renamed to Cha-Am, that announcement contains the Thai numerals already. Checking the other announcements in my list, the switch happened in early December 1944.

The use of Arabic numerals was only adopted two years before, the first announcement I have in my database is the creation of Phra Tabong town municipality (Battambang in Cambodia) in November 1942.

This timing roughly coincides with the Thai spelling reform, which was also in use 1942-44 - under the pressure of the Japanese who occupied the country and had lots of problems with the Thai language. So probably the temporary dropping of the Thai numerals was also related with the Japanese occupation. Nowadays one does not see the Thai numerals in everyday use that much anymore - except the infamous double pricing signs showing the lower prices for Thai nationals in Thai numerals and the much higher price for foreigners in Arabic numerals. Yet official documents like the Royal Gazette will probably the last to switch to Arabic numerals, if ever again.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Municipal decisions from April 29 2010

Meeting number 23 from April 29 2010 with three name changes of local government units.
  • TAO Khok Tun (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลโคกตูม), Nong Khae district, Saraburi province renamed to Khok Tun-Phon Thong (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลโคกตูม-โพนทอง).
  • TAO Ban Paen (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลบ้านแป้น), Mueang Lamphun district, Lamphun province renamed to Tha Chiang Thong (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลท่าเชียงทอง).
  • Subdistrict municipality Kayuboko (เทศบาลตำบลกายูบอเกาะ), Raman district, Yala province renamed to Mueang Raman (เทศบาลตำบลเมืองรามันห์).

Monday, June 21, 2010

Trip in review

Back in cold Germany, here's a short overview of the things I did in Thailand related to the topic of this blog, so you can get an idea of what new postings may be written about.
  • I have visited another five of the BMA local museums - Suan Luang, Yannawa, Bang Rak, Bang Sue and Dusit. The indiviual reports will be posted on my travel blog however.
  • For have seen the first of the graphic license plates in Bangkok, a total of eight times. I wonder if I the previous years it was bad luck I never noticed any, or these new license plates actually just started to be issued recently.
  • I could take photos of several administrative entity offices, including those in Ranong and Nakhon Pathom town. Also in Ranong I visited the graveyard of the first governor, and since I long planned to write up a Wikipedia article on him, maybe I'll start with a posting on him here first.
News topics which accumulated during my time of limited internet access include the first round of the district council elections in Bangkok, a province governor reshuffle which finalized the changes done after the red shirt riots in four provinces, and a few municipal decisions in the board meeting transcripts. However only one announcement in the Royal Gazette, another petition to split Lopburi province into two provinces, a topic I planned to wrote about for quite some time already anyway.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Local government bylaws

Reading the latest book by of Duncan McCargo Tearing apart the land on the ongoing insurgency in the three Muslim provinces - quite a recommendable book - the following part of the TAO politics caught my eye.
Discussions with TAO members often raised questions about the limited powers of the organizations. Some nayok wanted the power to close down entertainment places (such as karaoke lounges) within their subdistricts. In fact, however, TAOs did have the power to issue local bylaws and were perfectly entitled to take a tough line on matters such as building control. Over one workshop lunch, it soon became clear to me that most nayok did not want to enact or enforce bylaws, which would make them unpopular and could potentially jeopardize their reelection. Only a handful of TAOs in the three provinces had exercised their right to set bylaws.
In a footnote he also explains
[...] in practice, these "tambon regulations" are subject to the scrutiny of district officers.
I happened to see such bylaws in the Royal Gazette before, yet never paid much attention to them. I picked just one such announcement by chance, on October 8 a bylaw titled "ข้อบัญญัติองค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลพลูตาหลวง เรื่อง การควบคุมแหล่งเพาะพันธุ์ยุงลายเพื่อป้องกันโรคไข้เลือดออก พ.ศ. ๒๕๕๒" was published. Translated to English, the title means "Regulation of TAO Phlu Ta Luang (Sattahib district, Chonburi Province) controlling mosquito breeding sources to prevent dengue, B.E. 2552".

Another kind of similar announcements I notice because they showed up when searching for the Chumchon (ชุมชน), the administrative subdivision of the municipalities. Yet despite announcing the setup of these subdivisions, they seem to be something like the constitution of the municipality. One example dating back to January 2009 is titled "ระเบียบเทศบาลเมืองสองพี่น้อง ว่าด้วยการดำเนินงานชุมชนของเทศบาล พ.ศ. ๒๕๕๑" and is from the town municipality Song Phi Nong (เทศบาลเมืองสองพี่น้อง).

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

TAO councils of the 1960s

Chapter 3 of the 1987 book "Government and Politics of Thailand" on the bureaucracy gives an outline of the administrative structure as of 1980. Oddly it includes the TAO, which as far as I know were abolished after the 1972 coup - I suspect this is because this text is sourced on the 1973 Ph.D. dissertation by Tawat Wichaidit "Provincial Administration in Thailand", and the author of this chapter, Chai-Anan Samudavanija, was not aware that the administrative system had already changed quite a bit in the decade since the publication of his source. But this has the advantage that I could finally find some information on these first incarnation of the Tambon Administrative Organizations, as that 1973 dissertation wasn't published and thus is quite difficult to get into my library.

The relevant paragraph on the TAO reads as follows:
The tambon administrative organization has as its legislative body a council composed of the kamnan and all village headmen, plus one elected member from each village. These councils receive appropriations from the Department of Local Administration through the budget of the provincial council, and from the Department of Community Development (CD) through the Provincial CD Officer. Since its inception in 1956, the tambon administrative organizations has remained lightly financed and heavily dependent upon grants-in-aid from the central government; the typical tambon council received a grant of only 10,000 baht (US$500) a year.
Compare these with the current TAO council, which also has two representatives from each village, but the central administrative officers - subdistrict and village headmen - are no longer part of this council. When the TAO were created again since 1994, only in the first term of the councils the headmen were members of the council, but after this grace period the council has become completely elected.

Oddly, the above described TAO council in the 1960s is identical with the Tambon Councils as defined by the TAO and Tambon council act of 1994\, only that in 2001 the last of the Tambon councils were upgraded to TAO. If I am not mistaken, before 1994 these councils also included the subdistrict doctor, another official on the payroll of the Ministry of Interior. Guess I still have to research these two councils and their development a bit more to get the full picture.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Prince Damrong on the thesaphiban reforms

The article Hegemony and resistance in northeastern Thailand by Charles F. Keyes (in: Regions and National Integration in Thailand, 1892-1992) starts by citing Prince Damrong, Minister of the Interior 1892-1915 and father of the thesaphiban administrative reforms. It was first published in 1935 in the book "Historical anecdotes" (นิทานโบราณคดี).
When the domains of the hinterland of the kingdom were organized into monthon in about 1890 in the fifth reign (i.e. the reign of King Chulalongkorn), the monthon containing the domains of the black-bellied Lao was first called "Monthon Chiang" (and those containing) the white-bellied Lao were called "Monthon Lao Phuan" and "Monthon Lao Kao". [...]
... and the names of the monthon were changed in accord with their directional location within the kingdom: Monthon Chiang became Monthon Phayap, Monthon Lao Phuan became Monthon Udon, and Monthon Lao Kao became Monthon Isan.
The directoral terms from the Sanskrit I mentioned before already. The previous names refer to the older principalities, Chiang Mai of course became Chiang, Phuan to Chiang Khwang (Xieng Khoung) and Kao to Luang Prabang. The black-bellied refers to the traditional tattoo on the bellies, whereas the white-bellied did not do like that.

However these names don't fit with the announcement in the Royal Gazette, which in 1899 announced the creation of the four Monthon and renamed them in 1901.
  • Tawan Tok Chiang Nuea (ตวันตกเฉียงเหนือ) around Chiang Mai, later named Phayap (พายัพ)
  • Fai Nuea (ฝ่ายเหนือ) around Khon Kaen, later named Udon (อุดร)
  • Tawan Ok Chiang Nuea (ตวันออกเฉียงเหนือ) around Ubon Ratchathani, later named Isan (อีสาณ)
  • Tawan Ok (ตวันออก) around Battambang, later named Burapha (บูรพา)

Friday, June 11, 2010

Districts named after Royals

As Thailand is a monarchy and quite the majority is royalist, it's no wonder this love or respect towards the royal family also shows in several geographical entities named after them. Interestingly, only dams have been named after HM the King or the Queen, but none of the districts. But several other members of the royal family have given their names to a district in their honor.

At first, there are the three daughters of the royal family, each having one district named after them.
However none is named after the Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, but I don't know the reason.

Other members of the royal family have already been honored by district names. The older sister of the King, Princess Galyani Vadhana, had lend her name to the district Watthana in Bangkok, and of course also the recently new district Galyani Vadhana in Chiang Mai is of course also named after her. Also the mother of the King has a district named after her - Mae Fa Luang district in Chiang Rai, the name she was most well-known to the hill-tribes in the north. Also, the district Srinagarindra in Phatthalung is named in her honor. A more distant member of the family, Vibhavadi Rangsit has been honored by the district Vibhavadi in Surat Thani province, not that far from where she died when rebels shot down her helicopter in 1977.

One further district is named after a royal, Phaya Mengrai district is named after the founder of the Lanna kingdom of northern Thailand, 700 years ago. Unless I forgot one, the only other central government entity named after a person was the province Phibun Songkhram, the Cambodian province Siem Reap while it was annexed during World War II, named after the prime minister and military dictator of that time.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Province level decentralization

In the article "Problems with Decentralization" by Michael H. Nelson (found in the KIP yearbook 2001) I learned about another planned administrative change which wasn't done. The 1997 constitution, which mandated the parliament to decentralize the administration, included the following clause in section 78, point 3
as well as develop into a large-size local government organization a province ready for such purpose, having regard to the will of the province in that province.
Now, I knew the election of provincial governors was discussed in past, but obviously not done, except in the special administrative area of Bangkok. Though the article does not go into the details of what was actually planned - maybe it was never explicitly stated anyway - this in effect would have meant something like a merge of the PAO with the provincial administration by the Ministry of Interior into a single entity, with an elected council and governor. Quite similar to what was done when the special administrative area of Bangkok was created in 1972. This new kind of provincial administration was set to be tested at a few provinces at first, among them Phuket.

Now after reading this, the reference to a special administrative status for Phuket I found earlier makes much more sense. Unlike what is apparently planned for Ko Samui and Mae Sot, the plan for Phuket referred to there was not about special municipalities modeled after Pattaya, but instead a province administration modeled after the special administrative area of Bangkok. But it seems both the rather centralist Thaksin administration as well as the abolish of the 1997 constitution after the 2006 coup have shelved any such plans. The only resurfaced in some of the proposals for solving the insurgency in the deep south.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Consolidation of central administrative unit names

During the thesaphiban reforms at the beginning of the 20th century, the central administration hierarchy Monthon, Changwat, Amphoe, Tambon, Muban was created all over the country - however the levels below Monthon differed in the various parts of the country. Most notably, until 1916 the provinces were usually named Mueang since these were the historic precursor of the modern-day provinces.

Thus the announcement ประกาศกระทรวงมหาดไทย เรื่อง ทรงพระกรุณาโปรดเกล้า ฯ ให้เปลี่ยนคำว่าเมืองเรียกว่าจังหวัด from May 1916 changes two things - the Mueang (เมือง) are thereafter called Changwat (จังหวัด) and the Mueang governor (ผู้ว่าราชการเมือง) is thereafter known as province governor (ผู้ว่าราชการจังหวัด). I am not sure what the other text of this three-paged document is about, if I don't misunderstand it the use of "Amphoe Mueang" is also defined in there.

However actually the term "changwat" is a bit older already. I just recently discovered another announcement from 1908, in which for the Monthon Phayap, i.e. the area now known as northern Thailand, the modern names were introduced already. In same order as defined in the document these are
  • District officer นายแขวง to นายอำเภอ
  • District แขวง to อำเภอ
  • Subdistrict headman นายแคว้น to กำนัน
  • Subdistrict แคว้น to ตำบล
  • Village headman แก่บ้าน to ผู้ใหญ่บ้าน
  • Province บริเวณ to จังหวัด
The last one is the most interesting one. I already posted about another announcement which made me understand that in fact the Boriwen were the procursor of the provinces, also dating from 1908 and covering the area of Monthon Udon. In there the Boriwen were however renamed to Mueang. The only remaining Monthon which had Boriwen is Isan, which covered the southeastern part of the Khorat plateau, I only haven't yet found the Royal Gazette announcement changing the Boriwen in there to either Mueang or Changwat.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Thesaban rename not in Royal Gazette

While looking through the older board meeting transcripts from 2007, I cam across the one of meeting 2 of board 1 from January 17 2007. The only change to the municipalities within that document is a draft announcement for the rename of the subdistrict municipality Lae(เทศบาลตำบลและ), Thung Chang district, Nan Province to Thung Chang (เทศบาลตำบลทุ่งช้าง).

Not the act in itself is surprising, nor the fact that it wasn't published in the Royal Gazette yet, like many municipal changes which haven't been published there so far. But Google found several hits for the title of this announcement "ประกาศกระทรวงมหาดไทย เรื่อง เปลี่ยนชื่อเทศบาลตำบลและ อำเภอทุ่งช้าง จังหวัดน่าน เป็นเทศบาลตำบลทุ่งช้าง", almost all of them in the news section of TAO websites. These all have imported the news from the Department of Local Administration (DOLA) - I don't understand why DOLA does not offer a RSS feed of these to allow everyone to read them easily, but only created a way to have them embedded into other websites. Anyway, there it had exactly this announcement as a PDF, looking almost identical to a Royal gazette announcement for a municipality rename, like the most recent one. I really wonder why this ministerial order wasn't published in the Gazette, other orders from the same ministry in early 2007 are found in the Gazette database. Or is it somehow missing in the database only, not showing up in the search?

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Province clusters

When I was actually looking for some status updates on the forthcoming Bueng Kan province, a newsletter of the Ministry of Interior had on its last page a very short report on the hand-over of the proposal to the MOI. But actually this newsletter had more interesting things, just very difficult to read since copy-and-paste to Google translate does not work. It seem like in 2012 the 150th birthday of Prince Damrong will be an anniversary in association with UNESCO. His 100th birthday marked the first ever Thai personality celebrated in this way.

The actual topic of this post is found on page 10, where the 75 provinces (without Bangkok) are listed as being in 18 province groups named Glum Changwat (กลุ่มจังหวัด). The recommended translation for this according to a posting in the webboard of the Royal Institute is "province cluster". These clusters have just been created after the cabinet meeting on February 17 2009, and were even announced in the Royal Gazette later that year. Apparently these clusters for now are only a kind of regional board, in which the provinces can jointly do economic or cultural activities which are beyond the scope of a single province. It seems the office for the clusters are within the province hall of the capital province. I don't know if these cluster are supposed to become a real administrative subdivision taking responsibilities from either the central government or from the constituent provinces, like a reincarnation of the Monthon abolished in the 1930s, or the regions it had in the 1940s.

So for now I only give the complete list of these clusters with their constituent provinces in same order as in the Gazette announcement, the capital province is always the one in bold. See also the map to the right.
  • Upper central 1 (ภาคกลางตอนบน 1): Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Saraburi
  • Upper central 2 (ภาคกลางตอนบน 2): Chai Nat, Lop Buri, Sing Buri, Ang Thong
  • Central (ภาคกลางตอนกลาง): Chachoengsao, Nakhon Nayok, Prachin Buri, Samut Prakan, Sa Kaeo
  • Lower central 1 (ภาคกลางตอนล่าง 1): Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Ratchaburi, Suphanburi
  • Lower central 2 (ภาคกลางตอนล่าง 2): Prachuap Khiri Khan, Phetchaburi, Samut Songkhram, Samut Sakhon
  • Southern Gulf of Thailand (ภาคใต้ฝั่งอ่าวไทย): Chumphon, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Surat Thani
  • Southern Andaman (ภาคใต้ฝั่งอันดามัน): Krabi, Trang, Phang Nga, Phuket, Ranong
  • Southern Border (ภาคใต้ชายแดน): Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala, Songkhla, Satun
  • East (ภาคตะวันออก): Chanthaburi, Chon Buri, Trat, Rayong
  • Upper northeast 1 (ภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือตอนบน 1): Loei, Nong Khai, Nong Bua Lam Phu, Udon Thani
  • Upper northeast 2 (ภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือตอนบน 2): Nakhon Phanom, Mukdahan, Sakon Nakhon
  • Central northeast (ภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือตอนกลาง) Kalasin, Khon Kaen, Maha Sarakham, Roi Et
  • Lower northeast 1 (ภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือตอนล่าง 1): Chaiyaphum, Nakhon Ratchasima, Buri Ram, Surin
  • Lower northeast 2 (ภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือตอนล่าง 2): Yasothon, Si Sa Ket, Amnat Charoen, Ubon Ratchathani
  • Upper north 1 (ภาคเหนือตอนบน 1): Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Lampang,Lamphun
  • Upper north 2 (ภาคเหนือตอนบน 2): Chiang Rai, Nan, Phayao, Phrae
  • Lower north 1 (ภาคเหนือตอนล่าง 1): Tak, Phitsanulok, Phetchabun, Sukhothai, Uttaradit
  • Lower north 2 (ภาคเหนือตอนล่าง 2): Kamphaeng Phet, Nakhon Sawan, Phichit, Uthai Thani