UNESCO chief to visit Thailand

BANGKOK, September 7 (TNA) - Her Excellency Irina Bokova, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is scheduled to visit Thailand from September 8-10 to campaign and seek for cooperation with UNESCO's initiative on promoting literacy and educational excellence through the use of information communication technology (ICT) in Asia and the Pacific. Thai Permanent Secretary for Education Dr. Sasithara Pichaichannarong told reporters on Friday that the UNESCO chief's upcoming visit to Thailand, her second trip to the Kingdom in two years, is at the invitation of the Thai Education Minister, aimed at strengthening joint cooperation between Thailand the the UN agency in the fields of education, science, culture, social science and mass communications, as Thailand has been the UNESCO 49th member country since 1949. Her Excellency Bokova, a Bulgarian-born diplomat, has played her important roles in promoting educational cooperation to achieve UNESCO’s Education for All or EFA and the United Nations Millennium Development goal through literacy and educational development of women and children, as well as human rights and peace promotion, educational innovation and ICT utilization. Madam Bokova visited Thailand for the first time last year to attend the 10th Meeting of the High Level Group on Education for All held in the eastern seaside Chonburi (ชลบุรี) Province.(TNA)