The Ninth Coordinating Meeting of the Thailand-Singapore Civil Service Exchange Programme (CSEP) was held in Singapore on 14 October 2009. His Excellency Mr. George Yeo, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Singapore, and His Excellency Mr. Kasit Piromya, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand officiated at the opening ceremony on 14 October 2009.

The Meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Peter Ho, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore, and Mr. Apichart Chinwanno, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand. Senior officials from both countries' civil services from agencies involved in the 13 cooperation clusters, participated in the Meeting. The13  cooperation clusters are: Education; Legal and Judicial; Social Welfare, Youth and Sports cooperation; Civil Service Cooperation; Media, Culture and the Arts; Transport; Manpower; Information and Communication Technology; Science and Technology; Technical Cooperation; MFA-to-MFA Cooperation; Health, and Environment.

Since its inception in 1998, CSEP has been an important bilateral mechanism in promoting closer contact and enhancing cooperation between various agencies of both countries, guided by the overall vision of the Singapore-Thailand Enhanced Partnership (STEP) framework .  In 1997, STEP was conceived as a broad vision for a long-term strategic partnership between both countries. STEP comprises of four pillars: (a) civil service exchanges; (b) enhanced economic relations; (c) defence relations; and (d) people-to-people cooperation.

A Joint Press Statement was issued at the conclusion of the meeting on 14 October 2009. For details please click here.