Remarks

for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva

at “Making the Mekong : Regional Growth and Leadership”

19th World Economic Forum on East Asia,

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam ,

6 June 2010, 13.00-14.30 hrs.

Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, allow me to congratulate the Government and the people of Viet Nam and the City of Ho Chi Minh for the success of hosting this very meaningful event. Had this meeting been held, may be, a couple of weeks back I certainly would not have been be able to join you. But I am here not only to say that we are back, stable and secure but also that we would like to do our part to contribute to the regional growth and sub-regional growth.

Turning to the Mekong sub-region, it has now been over 50 years since the Mekong Committee under the United Nations was set up. And since then we have seen a number of network of cooperations among the countries within this sub-region. The five Leaders we see on the stage represent five countries who are now members of ASEAN. And in the work of ASEAN itself there is also what we call an initiative for ASEAN integration where there have been attempts to create a network to bridge the regional gap among the ASEAN member countries. I need to remind you in this ASEAN Context because, of course, by 2015 we will be moving towards a single market of over 600 million people, and that in itself creates tremendous opportunities for business and other opportunities also.

But even among the Mekong sub-region countries, we have already had frameworks such as the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), the Mekong River Committee (MRC). We have the Mekong River Commission, which recently had the first summit meeting in Hua Hin Thailand. We also have the Mekong-Japan lower Mekong initiative. We have the sister-river partnership between the Mississippi River Commission and the Mekong River Commission. And also we have the ACMECS (the Ayeyawady - Chao Phraya - Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy). I think all this reflects the tremendous potential that exists, given that the Mekong provides a lifeline rich in resources, rich in cultural heritage and local wisdoms which will create tremendous opportunities.

Over the past 5 years, on the part of Thailand, we have contributed approximately US$ 370 million towards the funds for development of this sub-region.

But looking ahead, what I see as the main objectives in terms of development of the sub-region I can identify at least four areas.

First, I believe that this sub-region can contribute much to the issue of food and energy security, not only at sub-regional level but also at the regional and even at the global level. The determination for all the sub-regional countries here along the Mekong is that we would be able to make good use of the rich endowment of natural and human resources, home-grown technology and wisdoms, so that we can link the Mekong sub-region farmers to the global supply chain. I think that is a very important contribution that this sub-region can make.

The second objective, of course, is very much in line with our prioritising the issue of connectivity at the regional and sub-regional level. We want to make sure that there is a logistics network that links up the countries along the Mekong. And for Thailand, we are very much moving ahead on this agenda very rapidly. Recently we have approved now the fourth bridge across the Mekong River that will be linking up Chiang Khong and Chiang Rai with Huasai, Bo Kaew -- which is in fact the last missing link as far the North-South Economic Corridor is concerned. And in our package of stimulus package in addressing the global financial crisis there is a lot of money that has been set aside for mega-projects, roughly USD 2.4 billion, which will be invested in creating this logistics network. We intend to do double tracking of our train system and the routing that we will be investing in will have the connectivity issue in mind. So not only the North South Economic Corridor but the new tracks that we will lay down will also be with a view to linking up with Laos and Viet Nam; and even the Southeastern group might be connecting up to Cambodia and Viet Nam as well. We have the Neighbouring Countries Economic Development Cooperation Agency that provides soft loans also for our neighbouring countries so that they can have additional sources of finance to create the necessary infrastructure.

The third objective, of course, is that it is not enough to have the transport corridor. To convert it into an economic corridor we need to invest in human resources. And again in Thailand we have a number of universities as well as the Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), the Mekong Institute, and also other ministries’ agencies that are now heavily involved in the issue of training facilities and experts so that we can join hands with development partners which many of them are also ASEAN Dialogue Partners -- like Japan and China -- to provide trainings so that we can truly convert these networks of transport corridors into true economic corridors.

And the final objective but, certainly from my point of view probably the most important one for the longer term future, is that we must do this while maintaining environmental sustainability. And what has been encouraging is that when we had the First Mekong River Commission Summit we have not only four Leaders but also the Dialogue Partners -- China and Myanmar -- who are now willing to share all information about water flows, the effects on environmental issues, and that the theme of the development in the sub-region we have placed as “Meeting the Needs while Keeping the Balance.”

Of course we have a number of challenges. The Prime Minister of Viet Nam has already mentioned that with such a rich framework of cooperations we have to make sure that we focus on the shared vision and exploit the complementarities among the various cooperation frameworks. But two more points I would like to make.

The first is that we have to also make sure that while we develop these logistics networks we do not leave behind small and medium enterprises and also local enterprises that rely on local wisdoms. We very much support the idea that there should be a special fund -- development fund -- that truly focuses on these small and local enterprises.

And finally, the emphasis of ASEAN in its new Charter is to place importance on people-to-people activities. And, therefore, not only do we seek partnership with the business sector, the private sector, but all the stakeholders should as much as they can join in this development process.

So I think I have very much summed up how I see the sub-region growing and I would certainly invite all the entrepreneurs who are present here to take part and contribute to the prosperity and stability of the region.

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Thank you.