H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and H.E. Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore will co-chair the Opening Ceremony of the 12^th Coordinating Meeting of the Thailand - Singapore Civil Service Exchange Programme (CSEP) on 28 March 2016 at Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok.

The 12^th CSEP Meeting will be held under the theme of “Promoting Cooperation among Civil Service Agencies to Support ASEAN Connectivity”. The plenary meeting will be co-chaired by H.E. Mr. Apichart Chinwanno, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and H.E. Mr. Chee Wee Kiong, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore.

The 1^st Civil Service Exchange Programme was held in 1998. This meeting is one of the bilateral mechanisms under the Singapore-Thailand Enhanced Partnership (STEP) framework to promote goodwill and the exchanges of experiences and best practices among the 13 clusters of cooperation. These clusters include 1) MFA-to-MFA Cooperation; 2) Civil Service; 3) Education; 4) Environment; 5) Health; 6) Information and Communication Technology (ICT); 7) Legal and Judicial Cooperation; 8) Manpower; 9) Media, Arts and Culture; 10) Science and Technology; 11) Social Welfare, Youth and Sports; 12) Technical Cooperation; and 13) Transportation.

During his stay in Thailand, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore has been granted a royal audience with Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. He will also pay courtesy calls on General Surayud Chulanont, Privy Councillor and General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of Thailand and will have a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs.