PM thanks Japanese private sector for its faith
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday that she was grateful to the Japanese private sector for maintaining confidence in Thailand and her government despite last year's flood crisis.
In a speech delivered to the Japanese Business Federation Keidanren and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Yingluck urged investors to consider investing in infrastructure in the Mekong basin.
Yingluck is in Japan for the Japan-Mekong Summit, which began on Thursday and will wrap up today. The summit is being held to discuss Japan-initiated development schemes for countries in the Mekong basin.
The premier praised the Japan-Mekong cooperation, saying the new master plan to be endorsed today would benefit people in the Mekong basin and urged the private sector to invest in the scheme.
She added that Japanese investors would play a crucial role in the development of the Mekong basin as well as the region’s relations with Japan.
Yingluck explained that several plans were underway to fix the damages sustained by last year’s flood crisis and thanked the Japanese private sector for helping her government restore and rehabilitate the country quickly.
After her luncheon speech, Yingluck accompanied other leaders from Mekong countries, including Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Lao premier Thongsing Tham-mavong, Myanmar President Thein Sein and Vietnamese premier Nguyen Tan Dung to an audience with Japanese Emperor Akihito yesterday.
This was the fourth Japan-Mekong Summit held in Tokyo to discuss cooperation in the development of the Mekong region. During the latest summit, the leaders are scheduled to issue a “Tokyo Strategy 2012 for Mekong-Japan Cooperation” as well as adopt concrete actions and measures over the next three years.
The previous three-year action plan was adopted in the first summit in 2009, when Japan pledged 500 billion yen (Bt189 billion) in official aid to Mekong nations from the fiscal year of 2010 with a 63-point action plan.
The new action plan would be in the context of regional integration as Asean forms an economic community by 2015.
