The funds being raised would be invested in thousands of "shovel-ready" small and medium-sized development projects starting from the fourth quarter of 2009.

- The second 400 billion baht is a legislative bill that will require more time to pass. The Senate begins a first reading on Monday, after the bill was passed by the lower house last week.

This portion will also be financed by domestic borrowing, mostly through new issues of government baht bonds and treasury bills. But the borrowing would begin later this year to the end of 2011.

The funds would go towards other development and infrastructure projects that are still being studied.

- The remaining 630 billion baht would come from normal annual fiscal budgeting between 2009 and 2011 and for which parliamentary approval is required.

Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij says the 1.43 trillion baht package, known as "Strong Thailand 2012", will cover more than 6,000 development projects.

Korn says that the programme could lift economic growth by 1.5 percentage points per year.

It is expected to create 400,000-500,000 jobs a year.

He says the increased local borrowing, part of which would also be made through commercial bank loans, would raise public sector debt to nearly 60 percent of gross domestic product from about 42 percent now.

"This is a comfortably sustainable debt level compared with many other countries which have similar ratios of over 100 percent," he has said.