On 6 October 2022, Mrs. Ureerat Chareontoh, Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), welcomed Mr. SUZUKI Kazuya, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Thailand Office. Mr. KAWABE Ryoichi, Senior Representative, JICA, Thailand Office, also presented at the meeting.

Both sides discussed the on-going development cooperation between Thailand and Japan as well as the future direction of collaboration, namely on technical cooperation projects (TCP) and research projects under Science and Technology under Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) scheme proposal submissions, which will be implemented in Japanese Fiscal Year 2023, the Programme for COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support, a grant aid by the Government of Japan to provide medical equipment to Thai research institute and hospitals along the borders as well as the Friend from Thailand (FFT) Programme, in which Thailand has dispatched 2 Thai volunteers to work in the area of promoting local tourism in Japan. In this regard, they acknowledged the efficiency of Thailand-Japan development cooperation and its implementation mechanism as it could be a role model for Thailand development collaboration with other partners.

Furthermore, both sides discussed partnership for development and explored possibilities to expand trilateral cooperation with other partners, in which Thailand applied the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) as its approach for projects’ implementation. They also agreed to expedite 2 currently on-going trilateral cooperation projects, namely (1) The Sustainable Community Development Project based on the Application of the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) and Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion (SHEP) in Senegal and (2) TICA-JICA Triangular Cooperation for Palestine Phase II for Development of Tourism Sector, so as they could be implemented within scheduled time.

Mr. SUZUKI Kazuya expressed his readiness to collaborate with TICA in order to strengthen the technical cooperation between Thailand and Japan and for the benefit of the region.