More than 10 billion baht (278 million U.S. dollar) has poured in to assist tsunami victims in southern Thailand in the past two years, according to the Office of the Prime Minister.

Jullayuth Hirunyawasit, permanent secretary of the Office, was quoted by local newspaper The Nation on Sunday as saying that the money had been distributed through local state agencies to victims in all six affected provinces.

Jullayuth said that the financial aid came from three sources, namely, donations from the public to the Office of the Prime Minister, reserved budget of the government, and allocation by the committee on decentralization.

He said the Office of the Prime Minister still had 92 million bath (2.56 million U.S. dollars) left over for aid.

According to Jullayuth, if no agency asks for more assistance, the 92 million baht will be transferred to the government's relief fund to help victims of other disasters. He said the Education Ministry has recently asked for 25 million baht (690,000 U.S. dollars) to assist more than 5,000 tsunami orphans and the request would be considered by the relevant sub-committee soon.

The Finance Ministry also provided 59.5 billion baht (1.65 billion U.S. dollars) in low-interest loans to victims.

Source: Xinhua