On 22 March 2022, Mrs. Ureerat Chareontoh, Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), welcomed Mr. BABA Takashi, Senior Director, Southeast Asia Division 4, Southeast Asia and Pacific Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mr. MORITA Takahiro, Chief Representative, JICA, Thailand Office, and JICA team members and discussed the technical cooperation between Thailand and Japan. Mr. Cheevindh Nathalang, Deputy Director-General of TICA, was also present at the meeting.

Director-General Ureerat commended JICA’s roles and contributions as Thailand’s longstanding partner for development cooperation for almost 70 years, while Mr. BABA appreciated Thailand’s constructive role, as a new emerging donor country, contributing to development of other countries especially its neighbouring countries. Both sides expressed the sastifaction for the current development cooperation outcomes in various sectors at all levels, including, Agriculture, Public Health, Connectivity, Aging Society, Environemnt, Finance, HRD, Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy Model, Community Development and Sufficiency Economy Philosopy (SEP).

Being Thailand’s coordinating agency of ACMECS Pillar 3 (Smart and Sustainable ACMECS), Director-General Ureerat invited JICA to join TICA as a strategic partner to play its parts under ACMECS pillar 3, particularly in HRD and Capacity Builing.

Both sides discussed Japan’s Grant Aid extended to Thailand under the Programme for COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support. The objective of the Programme is to enhance capacity of Thai Public Health agencies in response to COVID-19, especially in Thai boder areas.

On this occasion, Mr. MORITA thanked TICA for dispachting two Thai volunteers under “Friends from Thailand” to support tourism and community development in Kushiro and Kumamoto. The dispatch of Thai volunteers under FFT will be a gesture and symbolic of cordial relatations and freindships between the two countries. This new initiative can be one of the activities to mark 135th anniversary of Thailand-Japan diplomatic relations and 48th anniversary of JICA.