Thailand's government officially announced on Friday through a state-owned television that the government had lifted the state of emergency imposed earlier in Bangkok and some districts of five nearby provinces, effective from 12:00 local time (0500 GMT), Friday.

The Thai government, led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, had viewed that currently the government can control the overall situation and also can prevent any possible violence.

The Prime Minister then decided to lift the state of emergency, according to the state-run television NBT.

Earlier on Friday morning, Abhisit said that lifting the state of emergency was a way to show his government's sincerity that " the government wants reconciliation and to make the country move forward."

In a related development, police had decided not to oppose bail applications of three core leaders of the anti-government protestors, or the red-shirted people after the emergency rule was lifted, senior police officers said on Friday, the website by The Nation newspaper reported.

Police are obligated to bring the three core leaders; Veera Musigapong, Natthawut Saikua and Weng Tojirakan, for the bail hearing at the Criminal Court on Friday afternoon after the police's custody ended along with the lifting of the state of emergency.

The three core leaders were arrested on April 14 after they announced to their supporters at the Government House that they decided to stop the mass rally claiming that they wanted to protect life of the red-shirted people as the army was reportedly planning to crack down on the protestors.

The state of emergency was declared by the government on Sunday afternoon, April 12, in capital Bangkok and some districts of five nearby provinces, citing the escalating violence due to scattered anti-government rallies.

Prior to the state of emergency's declaration, on April 11, the anti-government protestors stormed into the venue of the then-ongoing ASEAN summit at beach resort Pattaya bordering Bangkok and related summits, resulting in the cancellation of all of the summits.

On April 15, the Public Health Ministry announced two died and other 133 people from both sides -- the security forces and anti-government protestors -- were injured during the clashes amid the scattered rioting.

The state of emergency's imposition had earlier worried several sections in the Thai society, especially the business sector, including of tourism operators.

Shortly after the state of emergency was imposed, at least 20, 000 Chinese tourists cancelled their plan to visit resort Island Phuket on security worries, Purit Maswongsa, chairman of Phuket tourism association said.

Most foreign investors had not been confident in Thailand following the recent political chaos, hence they were reluctant to expand investments, said Santi Vilassakdanont chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries.

Thailand's Board of Investment had revised down the value of investments expected to apply for investment promotion privileges for 2009 to 400 billion baht (11.23 billion US dollars) from a previous target of 650 billion baht (18.26 billion US dollars).

Hence, Thailand's economy was expected to contract as much as five percent for 2009 since the recent political crisis had affected the country's tourism and investment sector, Prime Minister Abhisit said on Tuesday.

However, it was also possible in the worst case scenario the Thai economy would contract as much as 5.3 percent for 2009, according to a latest survey, which asked over 800 business operators in the country's agriculture, trade, service, and manufacturing sector, by the Center for Economic and Business Forecasting of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2009)