Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media,
On behalf of the Government and people of Thailand, I wish to state that it is a pleasure to welcome His Excellency U Thein Sein, President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and his delegation, on the occasion of His Excellency’s official visit to Thailand, which is his first visit to this country after his assumption of the position of President.
In our discussions today, I had expressed our pleasure at the close relations between Thailand and Myanmar and thanked the President for working with me to achieve progress on our cooperation in various areas. These include cooperation in the economic field, trade and investment, Myanmar labour in Thailand and in the fight against narcotics. Furthermore, Thailand and Myanmar will celebrate the 65th anniversary of their diplomatic relations next year in 2013.
Thailand is ready to expand its cooperation with Myanmar. In this connection, I underscored Thailand’s readiness to participate in the next meeting of the Joint Commission to be hosted by Myanmar and proposed the setting up of a Myanmar-Thailand Friendship Association so that it would be the counterpart to the Thailand-Myanmar Friendship Association which has already been established by the Thai side.
I took this opportunity to welcome the developments taking place in Myanmar under the leadership of His Excellency President Thein Sein and reaffirmed our readiness to support fully Myanmar efforts in this regard. The Thai side proposed development cooperation in four priority areas, namely, (1) capacity-building of human resources, (2) enhancing the preparedness of Myanmar to serve as ASEAN Chair in 2014, (3) economic reform and alternative development, and (4) infrastructure development.
I reaffirmed Thailand’s commitment to work closely with Myanmar on the development of the Dawei deep seaport which both sides agreed would be connected with the Laem Chabang deep seaport in Thailand to promote the interests of both countries and those of the region. The Myanmar side would benefit from the development of industrial estates in the Dawei area while the Thai side would benefit from the further development of the Eastern Seaboard. Indeed, yesterday (22 July 2012), the President travelled to observe the industrial estates at the Laem Chabang deep seaport and the industrial operations on the Thai side.
In addition, in our discussions this morning, both sides agreed to set up a working group at the ministerial level that will meet in August to consider various pending issues related to our cooperation in Dawei, ways and means to work together to expand the industrial area in the vicinity, and to give importance to and take care of the communities living in the area, in an appropriate manner.
The President and I agreed that it is appropriate to promote further economic development in our shared border areas. In this connection, I proposed the establishment of permanent border crossings between Thailand and Myanmar at (1) checkpoint Kiew Pa Wok, Chiang Mai province, (2) checkpoint Ban Huay Ton Noon, Mae Hong Son province, and (3) checkpoint Ban Phu Nam Ron, Kanchanaburi province. In addition, Thailand is in the process of considering the possibility of opening a temporary crossing point at checkpoint Ta Ko Bon, Ratchburi province.
The two sides signed three agreements as follows:
(1) MOU on the Comprehensive Development in the Dawei Special Economic Zone and its Related Project Areas, which reaffirms the commitment of the Thai side to work closely with Myanmar to develop the deep seaport and industrial estates in the Dawei area as well as necessary infrastructure projects,
(2) MOU on the Development Cooperation in Myanmar which focusses on the four areas of cooperation mentioned previously,
(3) Joint Statement for the Establishment of Energy Forum.
In this connection, I am confident that these agreements will help promote closer cooperation between Thailand Myanmar in various areas for the shared interests of the peoples of the two countries.
In addition, both sides agreed to cooperate in the development of the rice industry in Myanmar and on the issue of Myanmar labour in Thailand which the Thai side stated that it would provide care for Myanmar labour, who have rights under Thai law, in a just manner.
Finally, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to His Excellency President Thein Sein and his delegation for honouring our country with this visit. I am pleased with the success of this visit and hope that it would help promote closer cooperation between Thailand and Myanmar and continue to bring mutual benefit to the peoples of the two countries.
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