PM calls for joint suppression of transnational crime

BANGKOK, November 6 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Tuesday urged government leaders attending the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), scheduled for November 4-6 in Vientiane, Laos' capital, to jointly help suppress human trafficking and other forms of transnational crime and to forge ahead people-oriented development projects. Yingluck told a plenary session of the last-day 9th ASEM although several countries have benefited from building up connectivity, they may confront negative repercussions, for example, human trafficking, considered a most serious global issue now. Yingluck acknowledged that the Thai government has adopted measures to assist people of the most vulnerable groups in the society, covering immigrants, to ensure their access to equal civil rights in the society, in public health, education, finance and technologies and to raise their livelihood in order to help prevent them from falling victims of human trafficking gangs. As member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Thailand, are going to form the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015, Yingluck suggested that it is necessary to impose “efficient” penalty against those committing cross-border crime. Premier Yingluck cautioned that the human trafficking problem is to be solved at its root causes, namely poverty and social inequality; while sustainable socio-economic development projects are to be implemented parallelly in the long run. For people-oriented development agenda after the establishment of the AEC, the Thai prime minister recommended two prioritized policies on reduced risks and well-preparations for natural disasters, which should help achieve sustainable food chains, through providing support and cooperation to the Multi-Donor Trust Fund run by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and to agencies tasked with disaster management in both Asia and Europe. The Thai premier pointed out that support rendered to women roles to boost their competitiveness could help in economic development, saying that her government is, therefore, sponsoring the Women Development Fund in Thailand, and that the international community should also support the Every Woman Every Child (EWEC) Programme to improve health quality of mothers and children, a key base toward a global sustainable development goal. (TNA)