Financial institutions have approved more than Bt 3.5 billion to businesspeople whose hotels and resorts at Khao Lak in Phangnga province were destroyed by last December`s tsunami.

Meanwhile the government has already provided over Bt 150 million to help small-scale travel businesses and fishermen recover their losses and get their businesses moving again.

Phangnga governor Anuwat Metheewiboonwut said that the rehabilitation plan for the tsunami-hit Khao Lak area that financial institutions gave focused on over Bt 3.5 billion in long-term loans to rebuild 63 hotels and resorts.

Some Bt 2.6 billion in loans requested for the remaining 30 hotels and resorts is now under consideration.

The delay is caused by complicated processes of commercial banks, according to Governor Anuwat.

He said Bt 34 million in government funds was set aside for small-scale entrepreneurs in the tourism sector.

The government has spent Bt 120 million to help fishermen and Bt 4 million for owners of tourist boats, he said. (TNA)