Summary of Weekly Press Briefing
Friday, 7 April 2023 at 11:00 hours
Meeting Room 3, MFA and via MFA Facebook Live
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1. MFA wins 2023 Senatorial "Honorable Organization" Award

• On 4 April 2023, DPS Busadee Santipitaks, as the MFA representative received the 2023 "Honorable Organization" Award from Mr. Supachai Somcharoen, Second VP of the Senate. MFA received the Award for its role, together with Thailand Foundation, in initiating the Public Diplomacy Award in 2022. The Honorable Organization Award is part of the Senatorial Hall of Fame Project honoring the achievements of government agencies, private sector, and civil society in recognizing and promoting honorable citizens of Thailand.
• The annual PDA aims to honor individuals, groups, or organizations whose charitable works significantly helped promote a better understanding of Thailand, Thai people, and Thainess in the global arena. The first Laureate was Dr. Soontorn Antarasena, a senior otolaryngologist who formed the volunteer Ear Surgery Mobile Unit to provide free treatments to patients in neighboring countries.
• For more information about Thailand Foundation, please visit: www.thailandfoundation.or.th. Futhermore, MFA and Thailand Foundation will hold a joint press briefing on PDA 2023 soon.

2. Travel advisory for Thai Nationals

• During the Songkran Festival, Thai people planning to go on a trip abroad are advised to check the entry requirements of their countries of destination and prepare related documents accordingly.
• Passport and consular services are available at the DCA or Temporary Passport Offices in your area. Online appointments can be requested at www.qpassport.in.th/#/landing.
• Applications for an express passport service should be submitted before 11.00 hrs. each day. The passport should be available for pick up within the same afternoon or the day after at DCA.
• It is advisable to download the “Thai Consular” application, which contains useful information on consular affairs, including hotline phone numbers of the RTE/CG.

3. Updates on Thailand’s Upcoming Overseas Voting (with DG Rooge of Consular Affairs Dept.)

3.1 Updates on the number of Thais registered for overseas voting

• As of 7 April 2023, a total of 72,779 Thai voters have registered for overseas voting. It is expected to increase up to the number of Thai voters registered for the 2019 election abroad, which was around 119,313. The deadline for registration is 9 April 2023 (23.59 hours Thailand time).
• To ensure the registration for overseas voting is accessible for all Thais living abroad, MFA has been closely coordinating with the Ministry of Interior, which is responsible for the online overseas voting registration system. Improvement to the online registration system has been made to ensure speedy and smooth registration.

3.2 Voting Methods

• The methods of voting include on-site voting, mail-in voting, and mobile voting stations. RTE/CG have determined the appropriate procedure according to the local context of each country.

3.3 Overseas Voting Preparations

• MFA has launched the Oversea Voting Coordination at the Department of Consular Affairs to enhance the preparations of overseas elections and prevent other challenges drawn from previous experiences. At the Oversea Voting Coordination, the officers are assigned to monitor the latest progress from the RTE/CG using the Overseas Voting Monitoring System (OVMS), which provides real-time updates from RTE/CG around the world, in order to ensure smooth and transparent arrangements.

Weekly Press Briefing: https://fb.watch/jLrcgxzZXe/

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Press Division
Department of Information