Mrs. Suphatra Srimaitreephithak, Director - General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA) discussed with Argentine Director – General of International Cooperation during ECOSOC 2018 High-level Meeting of the Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) on 22 May 2018 at United Nations Headquarters to brainstorm ideas for BAPA+40 meeting preparation, which will be held on 20-22 March 2019 in Argentina. Representatives from Thailand, China, Singapore, Bangladesh, India, Japan, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Germany, European Union (EU), Switzerland and United States of America presented at the discussion.
TICA Director – General informed that Thailand will cooperate with United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP) and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) to hold the conference on ‘Regional Consultation on South-South Cooperation for Asia and the Pacific’ in Bangkok during 27-29 June 2018. The objectives of the Regional Consultation are to review the progress and to make suggestions on challenges of South-South Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific. The Argentine side viewed that this conference will be useful for BAPA+40 meeting, especially for taking stock of Asian perspectives on South-South and Trilateral cooperation.
Furthermore, TICA Director-General informed that there are 4 development cooperation forms namely: 1. South-South 2. North-South 3. South-South for South and 4. North-South for South. From Thailand’s experiences of development cooperation, those 4 forms of South-South cooperation are aimed for promoting cooperation from the basis of ‘sharing responsibility’ leading to inclusive development rather than competing each other. These can be monitored by 3Cs: Coherence-Coordination-Complementarities. She hoped that this will be one of the agenda to be discussed during the meeting.