New Thailand Prime Minister - Yingluck Shinawatra !!!
BANGKOK, Aug 8 - His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Monday signed a royal command endorsing Yingluck Shinawatra of the Pheu Thai Party and youngest sister of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra as Thailand's first female prime minister.
Ms Yingluck responded to the royal command at the Pheu Thai Party headquarters amid crowds of supporters after the Secretary-General of the Parliament Pitoon Poomhirun presented the royal command to her.
King Bhumibol earlier handed down the royal command to endorse Ms Yingluck as the country’s 28th prime minister to House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranond at Siriraj Hospital where the monarch has been staying for physical recuperation. Speaker Somsak later forwarded it to the House secretary-general.
Speaking at her party headquarters after receiving the royal command, Ms Yingluck pledged that she would apply her knowledge and competency to work with honesty for the country.
She said she has the strongest intention to solve the country’s problems and to achieve national reconciliation to return happiness to the Thai people.
Ms Yingluck asserted that her gender will not be an obstacle for her to work effectively for the country.
The country's first female prime minister said Monday morning that her cabinet lineup is 80 per cent complete and she expected to present the namelist for royal endorsement within one or two days.
She said there will be four "outsiders" joining her six-party coalition cabinet.
Ms Yingluck said last week that her first task once assuming the country's top job is to tackle the flood problem impacting vast areas in the North and Northeast.
Thailand’s floods, triggered by tropical storm Nock-Ten, have killed at least 23 persons while one person is missing, according to Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department Director-General Wiboon Sanguanpong.
Heavy rainfall flooded 16 provinces mostly in the North and Northeast. The flooding affected over 235,900 households.
The 500-member House of Representatives last Friday voted 296-3 for Ms Yingluck to become the country's 28th prime minister succeeding outgoing prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of the Democrat Party.
Born June 21, 1967 into an ethnic Chinese family in northern Chiang Mai province, Ms Yingluck is the youngest of nine siblings.
She earned a bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration of Chiang Mai University and a master's degree in Public Administration at Kentucky State University in the United States.
After graduation, she began her career working for Shinawatra Directories Co., Ltd. as a sales and marketing trainee in 1991 and became the company's purchasing manager the same year.
Between 2002-2006, she was the managing director of Advanced Info Service Pcl (AIS), Thailand's largest GSM mobile phone operator. The company was sold to Singapore state-owned agency, Temasek Holdings.
Before entering politics, Ms Yingluck was the president of property developer SC Asset Co., Ltd.
One of her older sisters is Yaowapa Wongsawat, whose husband, Somchai Wongsawat, was Thailand's 26th prime minister in 2008.
Ms Yingluck has a 9-year-old son with her common-law husband Anusorn Amornchat, former chairman of the executive board and director of M-Link Asia Corp. Public Co. Ltd. (MCOT online news)
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