On 23 June 2023, Mrs. Ureerat Chareontoh, Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), took part as a panelist in a webinar titled "Aid-for-Trade Webinar: Leveraging South-South Trade and Triangular Cooperation" organized by the World Trade Organization (WTO) upon the invitation by H.E. José R. SÁNCHEZ-FUNG, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the WTO in his capacity as the Chair of the Committee on Trade and Development. Internationally renowned panelists in the “Policy Perspectives” and “Practice Perspectives” Sessions came from esteemed institutions such as Research and Information System for Developing Countries, Nankai, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Quality Pulse Exporters, Tanzania, and International Trade Centre.

The Director-General of TICA laid out the background of development cooperation in Thailand, roles and the various forms of cooperation of TICA, including Thailand’s policy on   promoting Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) as a key to achieve the UN 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or “SEP for SDGs Partnership”. The Director-General also gave an example of South-South and triangular cooperation project on trade, where TICA partners with the United Nations Country Team in Thailand, International Trade Centre (ITC), European Union (EU), and the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards (ACFS) in the so-called “Trilateral Cooperation on Sharing Knowledge and Best Practices in Organic Agriculture with ASEAN Member States or ARISE Plus Thailand Project”, which aims to build farmers’ capacity in meeting export standard for organic agriculture products in Lao PDR.

Furthermore, representatives from the EU expressed interest and inquired how the SEP could be applied to TICA’s development cooperation. The Director-General explained that Thailand’s development approach is demand-driven by the recipient country and SEP’s guiding principles of moderation, reasonableness, and self-immunity are applied to our development cooperation with all partners. Representative from the Dominican Republic inquired about TICA’s Human Resources Development capacity building programs, specifically the Annual International Training Course (AITC) and Thailand International Postgraduate Programme (TIPP). Additionally, Ms. María del Pilar Garrido Gonzalo, Development Cooperation Director, the Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development (OECD), invited the Director-General of TICA to attend the 7th International Meeting on Triangular Cooperation in Lisbon, Portugal, in October of this year.