Top Thai envoys ordered to develop connectivity with ASEAN neighbors

BANGKOK, July 17 (TNA) - Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has ordered Thai ambassadors and consuls general to other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and governors of border Thai provinces to develop economic, security and cultural connectivity with the ASEAN neighbors, in the lead up to the formation of the ASEAN Community (AC) by 2015. Yingluck laid down the policy in Bangkok on Tuesday, when she opened a meeting of the Thai ambassadors, the consuls general and the provincial governors. Yingluck acknowledged that both the Thai public and private sectors need to now speed up providing information on the AC, with its three political and security, economic and socio-cultural pillars, to local people and realizing the regional connectivity. Regarding the economic connectivity, the prime minister noted that Thailand will trade with the whole ASEAN grouping, where there are a combined population of nearly 600 million, suggesting that the Thai Kingdom understand demands of neighboring countries, in parallel with enhancing national economic capabilities and potential to be competitive in the region and the world. Regarding politics and security, the prime minister urged Thai authorities in the border provinces to cooperate with their counterparts in adjacent provinces of neighboring countries on safety and the suppression of cross-border crime, but ordering them to amend laws and regulations to facilitate cross-border trade and travels. Regarding social and cultural cooperation, the prime minister said she would like people in ASEAN to exchange their cultures in order to become ASEAN people, pointing out that people in the 10-member ASEAN bloc could trade with one another, despite economic fluctuations, if they knew about one another’s cultures. (TNA)