Bangkok to be officially renamed

The Office of the Royal Society (ORST) has announced the change of the official name of Thailand’s capital, from Bangkok to Krung Thep Maha Nakhon. However, the name Bangkok is still recognized.

Report informs via Bangkok Post that the cabinet on Tuesday approved a Prime Minister's Office draft announcement on updated names of countries, territories, administrative zones and capitals, as proposed by the ORST.

The new official name, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, will not come into effect until it is vetted by a committee in charge of scrutinising all draft bills. The cabinet also asked the panel to take into consideration additional observations from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The announcement, approved by the weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday, said that the ORST's committee on the dictionary of international geographic names, comprising experts from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, had updated the spelling of countries, territories, administrative zones and capitals to be in line with the current situation. The panel then submitted the list to the PM's Office to issue the announcement.

The draft announcement also revokes the Prime Minister’s announcement on names of countries, territories, administrative zones and capitals dated Nov 9, 2001, using the ORST's announcement on updated names of September 1, last year.