On 1 December 2022, the Royal Thai Embassy in Rome organized a reception on the occasion of the National Day of the Kingdom of Thailand, the Birthday Anniversary of His Majesty the Late King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great and Thai Father’s Day at Rome Cavalieri, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Rome. The event was joined by H.E. Ms. Alessandra Schiavo, Deputy Director General/Principal Director for the Countries of Asia and Oceania, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy as the Guest of Honour. Around 250 people including diplomatic corps, Thai Honorary Consuls-General in Genoa, Milan and Venice, representatives from Italian, San Marino, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta authorities, business sectors, friends of Thailand and Thais living in Italy attended the reception.

 

H.E. Ms. Rommanee Kananurak, Ambassador of Thailand to Italy delivered her speech by honouring His Majesty the Late King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great for his dedication to Thailand’s national development during his 70-year reign. His Majesty’s over 4,000 Royal projects which are based on the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy aim to improve the livelihoods of Thai people, especially through soil and water resource development projects. In this regard, 5 December was officially recognized as World Soil Day by the UN in recognition of the late King’s lifetime work on soil management and conservation.

 

Ambassador Kananurak also addressed on the long-standing and friendly relation between Thailand and Italy with close cooperation in the fields of trade and investment, defense and law enforcement, space cooperation, education, culture as well as the cooperation under the ASEAN-Italy Development Partnership. She expressed hope to advance cooperation with Italy to support the post COVID-19 recovery by increasing trade and investment opportunities under the Bio-Circular-Green Economy (BCG) development strategy and in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) of Thailand.

 

On this occasion, H.E. Ms. Schiavo also delivered her remarks on the dynamics of Thai-Italian bilateral relations, including trade in which Thailand is Italy's second largest market in ASEAN, investment, tourism, culture, cooperation in combating transnational crime and cooperation at people-to-people level. She emphasized that both sides should strive to increase cooperation in transportation, renewable energy, biotechnology, packaging, agro-food processing and automotive industry. She also underlined the promotion of cooperation with Thailand under the ASEAN-Italy framework through relevant dialogues and projects.