On 18 January 2022, Mr. Adnan H. Aliani, Director, Strategy and Programme Management Division and Mrs. Zeynep Orhun Girard, Chief, Capacity Development and Partnerships of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) paid a courtesy call on Mrs. Ureerat Chareontoh, Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA). They took this opportunity to discuss cooperation between the two organisations. The meeting was also attended by the Director of the Development Promotion and Coordination Division and involved officials from TICA.

Director Aliani thanked TICA for its role as a co-host of the Global South-South Development Expo 2022 (GSSD Expo 2022) along with ESCAP and UNOSCC in September 2022, which turned out to be a great success. The ESCAP side also expressed appreciation for the Director-General’s leadership and guidance at the 4th Asia-Pacific Directors-General Forum (AP DG Forum), where she delivered the opening remarks and actively engaged with participants throughout the entire event.

Both sides also discussed ways forward and how to capitalize from the successful results and outcomes of the 4th AP DG Forum. The idea of establishing Working Groups to promote effective development cooperation, particularly South-South and triangular cooperation was shared and discussed.

Furthermore, ESCAP offered to host secondments of officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the form of fellowships, where ESCAP could also provide a stipend for the seconded officials. Initially the scope of work for such fellowships would be in the area of development and South-South Cooperation, but could expand to other technical areas/departments in the future. The two sides agreed to further explore the possibility of establishing such fellowships at ESCAP.