Japan keen on aiding development here, Tanasak says
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Japan will expand its economic cooperation with Thailand in infrastructure development as it wants to export technology for rail, space and water management here, Deputy Prime Minister Tanasak Patimapagorn said yesterday.
Tanasak, who is also foreign minister, discussed bilateral cooperation and ties between the two countries with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida when they met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Tanasak said Kishida praised Thailand’s role in developing physical infrastructure for regional connectivity and bridging the development gap with neighbouring countries.
He told Kishida that Thailand appreciated and supported Japan’s role in contributing to infrastructure development in the east-west and north-south economic corridors, with Japan willing to invest in the Dawei project to connect Myanmar, Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia.
He also expressed his gratitude to Japan for its understanding of the political situation in Thailand and reaffirmed that the government was implementing a road map towards sustainable democracy and reconciliation.
Thailand’s political, economic and social relationship with Japan is important and so is its role in promoting Asean development and regional stability, he told his Japanese counterpart.
During the annual UN conference, Tanasak also took the opportunity to speak to many other foreign ministers as well as the heads of leading private companies to explain the political developments in Thailand.
He met Steve Forbes and Christopher Forbes, president and vice president respectively of Forbes Media, the producer of leading business magazine Forbes, told Tanasak that they have been monitoring the situation in Thailand closely. The foreign minister believes the meeting will improve relations between Thailand and the foreign media, which are often highly critical of the military’s seizure of power from the elected government. Forbes magazine is famous among the international business community.
Forbes Media will organise Forbes Asia’s “200 Best under a Billion” awards ceremony in Thailand this year. Nine Thai companies were among the 200 small and medium-sized enterprises in the Asia-Pacific that made the list.
While in New York, Tanasak donated US$100,000 (Bt3.2 million) to Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, for emergency relief work carried out in Gaza under the Gaza Flash Appeal 2014.
He emphasised the importance of humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
Thailand has regularly contributed to the UNRWA since 1978.
