“The Harbour Department of Thailand issued the notice that all boat owners renewing their boat licence from Jan 1, 2018, will undergo a quality check of its life jackets,” said Mr Surat.
“And by the end of 2018, the standard of all jackets in all boats will have to be certified by the Harbour Department’s standard or to national standard for certain kinds of boats,” he said.
“This rule will be fully in force by Jan 1, 2019. The Harbour Department hopes that all boats will feature life jackets certified by them by 2019,” he added.
The life jackets placed on boats must be able to adjust their shape to help people sleep, in a reclining style, and needs to be labelled with a ten centimetre by ten centimetre tag showing that the quality of the life jacket has been approved.