On 23 July 2019, Ms. Pattarat Hongtong, Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, attended the 1/2019 Mekong Institute Council Meeting at the Mekong Institute, Khon Kaen Province as the representative of the Royal Thai Government and Chairman of the Council (2 years term during 5 August 2017 – 4 August 2019).

           The Royal Thai Government as the co-founder of the Mekong Institute (MI) has been continuously strengthening the work of the Mekong Institute since the establishment of the Institute. The Mekong Institute has served and supported the policy of the Thai Government toward the development cooperation under various regional frameworks particularly the initiative of Thailand such as ACMECS, GMS and the integration of ASEAN Community.

            Under the Chairmanship during the past 2 years, Thailand has been working with MI through the annual budget contribution and implementation of the capacity building development programmes for human resources in the Mekong Sub-region namely the annual training courses on Green Freight and Logistics Development and Gender Equality and Women empowerment, the project on Enhancing the Utilization of Free Trade Agreement by SMEs to enhance the understanding and knowledge of SME in the region on ASEAN Free trade agreement, the Project on Labour Migration Management in the Greater Mekong Sub-region to increase understanding of the challenges tailored to each GMS countries in implementing policies and practices of migrant workers and the project on Improving Institutional Capacities for Promoting Employability in the Greater Mekong Sub-region to support the vocational and skill training in the CLMV countries. In addition, Thailand has supported MI to implement development activities under various cooperation frameworks such as Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, of Korea Mekong-Republic Cooperation.

             In this Council Meeting, Thailand handed over the MI Chairmanship to representative of Vietnam who will assume the Chairmanship for the next 2 years from August 2019 – August 2021.