JICA urges more Japan-Thailand cooperation beyond Thai's Kingdom

JICA said the two countries would also cooperate in an effort to counter an increasing number of problems, such as pollution and resource shortages, while attempting to strengthen education. 

The agency’s chief representative in Thailand, Shuichi Ikeda, said JICA would continue to provide assistance to the Kingdom even though the country was currently not a priority because of the social development and economic success it had already enjoyed.

He said JICA viewed the Kingdom as a “development partner” that could help other developing countries, particularly those in the Greater Mekong Subregion, prepare for integration into the Asean Economic Community next year.

Shuichi was speaking at the JICA-organised “Thailand-Japan Cooperation, Past and Future” seminar to mark the 60th anniversary of Official Development Assistance (ODA).

“Although the nature of JICA’s cooperation with Thailand is changing, its commitment remains constant, and we look forward to a continuing collaboration with Thailand – not as a recipient country for assistance but as a true partner in the sustainable development of the region beyond Thailand,” he said.

Until last year, Thailand had received JICA technical assistance on 156 projects and 216 development studies worth Bt67.4 billion.

Thailand also received ODA loans for 242 projects, including large projects such as the mass-transit system in Bangkok and the construction of Suvarnabhumi Airport that totalled Bt656 billion as well as Bt52 billion in grant aid.

 

Commercial presence 

Japan has a strong commercial presence in the Kingdom, with more than 50,000 Japanese residents supporting the local subsidiaries of over 7,000 Japanese companies. 

Hidetoshi Irigaki, director-general of the Southeast Asia and Pacific Department at JICA headquarters in Japan, said the agency expected that by 2025 Asean would have reached a more developed stage, with annual growth of its gross domestic product of around 6 per cent.He said it was predicted that more than 17.5 per cent of the population would have reached a higher income status. With such growth Asean would face significant increases in energy and food consumption and more challenges it had not confronted before.

In the latest World Bank report on East Asia and the Pacific, it was predicted that the region would grow by 6.9 per cent in 2014 and 7.1 per cent in 2015 and had a combined GDP of around US$11.413 trillion (Bt374 trillion) in 2013. 

Irigaki hinted that Asean challenges such as infrastructure, an ageing population, education, and the environment could be areas tackled by the cooperation between the two countries in the near future.

“Japan’s cooperation with Thailand will continue under the concept of promoting mutual benefit and inclusion of a regional development base on strategic partnership,” he said.

Surin Pitsuwan, former secretary-general of Asean, said Thailand’s development had passed the stage of needing to receive help from developed countries.

He said Thailand’s economic, human development, and technological experience could be shared with other developing countries in the region and other areas such Africa, which did not require and could not make use of higher technology from Japan and Europe.

He urged the government to accelerate the country’s development in hard infrastructure, especially transport. If that did not happen and there were continual delays in logistics development, the idea of greater Asean connectivity would be impossible.