The Department of American and South Pacific Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, in cooperation with various Thai governmental agencies concerned, will organise the first-ever Thailand – Pacific Island Countries Forum (TPIF) under the theme “Strengthening Development Cooperation towards Common Prosperity” during 9 – 10 August 2014 in Bangkok. Invitations are extended to high-level delegations from fourteen Pacific Island Countries, namely the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Moreover, observers from Australia, New Zealand, and some international organizations with active involvement in the region as well as members of media representatives, are invited to participate in the platform to achieve its aim in promoting the development cooperation between Thailand and the countries in South Pacific Region. 

The first TPIF is an initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, which will serve as a conducive arena for high-level delegations of participating countries to exchange views, share experiences and best practices, and to deepen as well as broaden development and economic cooperation between Thailand and her partners. The first day of the event will feature three panel discussions on various topics related to development agenda. The topics include Sufficiency Economy, Sustainable Development, agriculture and fisheries, tourism, community development, energy and environment, as well as trade and investment. On the second day following the discussions, there will be site visits to showcase some of Thailand’s best practices on sufficiency and community development.

Thailand has continuously enjoyed cordial ties with the Pacific Island partners both at bilateral and multilateral level, in particular, under the framework of Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). Further, Thailand is one of thirteen dialogue partners in the Post Forum Dialogue (PFD) and has become an important Emerging Donor Countries in this respective region.

For almost two decades, Thailand has been a long-standing development partner of this region, through Thai International Cooperation Programme (TICP), particularly for human resources development in the Pacific Islands countries. Over 124 grants, worth 25.75 billion baht, have been contributed to the Pacific Island Countries in forms of International Training Courses and Post-Graduate Programmes of selective subject areas such as agriculture, fisheries, tourism, health care, education, community development, and environmental study.

The fourteen Pacific Island Countries have the potential to become the emerging markets for Thai products and investments. They have the population of over ten million and are richly endowed with natural resources, including mineral and renewable resources, and forestry. The foreseeing TPIF will therefore reaffirm Thailand’s role and commitment in international development cooperation among the Pacific partners and serve as a response to the effort of the United Nations to further promote South-South Cooperation among developing countries in all regions.