Mr. Chutintorn Gongsakdi, Director-General of the Department of International Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in his capacity as Thailand's Senior Official for Mekong-Japan Cooperation, attended the 5th Forum for the Promotion of Public-Private Cooperation in the Mekong Region in Tokyo along with delegates from the Thai public and private sectors.

Mr. Minoru Kiuchi, Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs highlighted the importance of the Mekong region for Japan in his opening remarks.  In 2012, Japan pledged development assistance of about 600 billion yen (USD 5 billion) with a view to achieving the Mekong development goals under the Tokyo Strategy 2012.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Sar Kheng, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister of Cambodia, on behalf of the Mekong countries, reiterated the willingness of the Mekong countries to enhance opportunities for Japan’s investment under Public-Private Partnership (PPP), especially in large-scale projects in infrastructure, electricity, telecommunications and agriculture.

This year, the Forum focused on three issues—investment environment, infrastructure, and agriculture and food-related industries. Regarding the investment environment, Dr. Sorapol Tulayasatien from the Thai Ministry of Finance pointed out the advantage of investing in Thailand where the corporate income tax rate is the second lowest in ASEAN.  Further investment incentives are also granted by the Board of Investment's (BOI) under its 2015-2022 investment promotion strategy, as well as the newly initiative concerning Regional Operating Headquarters (ROH).

In the session on infrastructure, Director-General Chutintorn spoke about Thailand’s eight-year strategy on transport infrastructure development and the government’s plan to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZs) along the border. Thailand also welcomes Japan’s interest in the Dawei SEZ project in Myanmar and Thailand’s rail transport projects. The Forum agreed that PPP is crucial for the Mekong countries. Furthermore, transparency, facilitation, land acquisition and obtaining construction permits are major challenges that should be addressed by the governments.

The Forum also discussed issues related to agriculture and food-related industries by focusing on application of agricultural technology and modern farming methods with a view to increase productivity and create more value-addition to agricultural products through food processing.

The Forum for the Promotion of Public-Private Cooperation in the Mekong Region is organized   annually by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to promote public-private partnership under the Mekong-Japan Cooperation framework.  Government officials, businessmen and experts from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan are invited to exchange views and experiences on regional investment issues and PPP.
The outcome of the meeting will be reported at the upcoming Mekong-Japan Summit to be held on 4 July 2015 in Tokyo.