On 17 March 2023, Mrs. Ureerat Chareontoh, Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), met with Flight Lieutenant Atchariya Pangma, Secretary-General of the National Institute for Emergency Medicine (NIEM), to discuss development cooperation between TICA and NIEM. Dr. Phichet Nongchang, Deputy Secretary-General of NIEM and Ms. Chidchanok Malayawong, Director of Development Promotion and Coordination Division also presented at the meeting.

Since 2016 NIEM has long been partnered with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in implementing the Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) entitled: The Project for Strengthening the ASEAN Regional Capacity on Disaster Health Management (ARCH Project). After five years of implementation of ARCH Project, Thailand and Japan agreed to build on the success of the said Project and currently move forward the second phase of ARCH Project, to be conducted from October 2021 – 2026. In addition to the said bilateral cooperation between Thailand and Japan, NIEM also takes an active role in technical cooperation with JICA in capacity buidling for countries in Mekong Sub-region by co-organising a three-year-Third Country Training Progrmme (TCTP) in “Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Medical Director Training Course Regional Training for Pre-Hospital Emergency Care in CLMV”. The first TCTP training course will be conducted in May 2023.

The meeting also explored the possibility to expand cooperation between TICA and NIEM, particularly to enhance the active role of NIEM in providing technical cooperation in EMS with Thailand’s neighbouring countries, for example by organising training courses for medical personels under bilateral technical cooperation framework in Health Sector between Thailand and respective countries.