Thai PM:ACD members should trust each other

BANGKOK, March 10 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha has publicised the Sufficiency Economy Principle, guided by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and called on member economies of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) to trust each other and create mutual benefits for the sake of their sustainable stability and prosperity. Delivering his speech at Thursday's inauguration of the 14th ACD Ministerial Meeting, hosted by Bangkok during March 9-10, aimed to strengthen cooperation among ACD member economies and among global economies, the Thai prime minister also proposed that Asian economies look at problems over the past year so that they can prepare common development programmes for the future. "Although each person cannot wear the same shirt, he/she can prepare a shirt which is fit for himself/herself", said the Thai premier. "The same thing can apply to Thailand, which cannot make everybody happy but the government can explain to everybody how it works by adhering to the state policy and make people happy reasonably and boost the country’s competitiveness", the Thai premier noted. The prime minister pointed out that ACD members have a combined population of 4.3 billion and six trillion US dollars in their combined trade value; so, the ACD grouping should be a world major market if members could cooperate well. The Thai premier suggested that ACD members march together to avoid conflicts caused by poverty and disparity, which remain major problems in the world to date. "Thailand has followed the Sufficiency Economy Principle, initiated by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and the country is willing to convey the knowledge to other countries being interested in the principle, while the Thai Kingdom is also laying a 20-year national strategy, aimed at making local people healthy and local communities become stronger. The prime minister stressed that Thailand will organise a new general election next year, while his military government will not interfere with the newly-elected administration, but the new government has to follow the national strategy; otherwise, politicians will follow policies of their parties which could pose problems for the national administration. (TNA)