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Brief Statement by H.E. Mr. Arkhom Termpittayapaisith

Secretary General of NESDB and Acting GMS Minister of Thailand At the 17th GMS Ministerial Meeting 4 August 2011, Phnom Penh, Cambodia -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------His Excellency Cham Prasidh Senior Minister, Ministry of Commerce and GMS Minister of Cambodia and Chairperson My Fellow GMS Ministers, ADB Vice President, Distinguished Delegates, Honorable Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen I am most honored to participate in this meeting. On behalf of [H.E. Satit Wongnongtaey, the GMS Minister of Thailand, and] the Thai delegation, I would like to thank the Government of Cambodia and the ADB for the warm welcome and all of the effort made in organizing this Ministerial Meeting in a historical city of Phnom Penh. Almost a decade ago, Phnom Penh made history by hosting the first Summit of Leaders of the GMS Framework. On that day in November 2002, the Leaders together approved many key strategies and projects, the most important of which was the First GMS Strategic Framework that will enter its final implementation period in 2012. My gratitude also goes to The Phnom Penh Plan, which was also launched at that time and has contributed so much to the improvement of the human capital of our public sector. The Second GMS Summit in Kunming and the third one in Vientiane were also achieving outstanding milestones for incorporating suggestions and views from private sector and our younger generation. I do hope that the Leaders vision to promote Public-Private Dialogue and to disseminate the knowledge of the GMS among our youth will also be continued in the next phase of development.
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2 Therefore, the Ministerial Meeting today has an important objective of paving the way for a successful fourth Summit of Leaders. It is our duties to clearly present to the Leaders and the public how the GMS plans to refocus itself to deal with the future challenges in dynamic regional and global context. At the same time, it is also timely to present our plan to enhance GMS competitiveness and to attract foreign investments into the subregion. I would like to ask our most efficient secretariat, the ADB, to ensure that these issues are well reflected in the New GMS Strategic Framework.

Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen For almost two decades of GMS cooperation, we have become famous as a subregion with high potential in rapid economic growth, rich natural resource, and unique cultural heritage. It can be said that our previous concrete achievement, particularly the progress on infrastructure development, is a heart of our regional development. Nevertheless, the future challenge for GMS is to successfully address the more difficult and complicated issues. The GMS is recently working on some of these issues including the subregional railway connectivity, convenient and safe cross-border transport, and the promotion of biodiversity corridor. Meanwhile, there are also other issues which I feel we have not adequately addressed, such as logistics and supply chain development, industry and productivity, and people-to-people connectivity. I agree that these issues have to be gradually implemented with strong commitment from all member countries and development partners. Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

3 I would like to take this opportunity to further elaborate the issues which I feel more effort should be made under the GMS. Firstly, it is undeniable that facilitation of cross border trade, transport and tourism with more comprehensive development of logistics system shall remain as a key issue for GMS and Economic Corridor development in the next period parallel. We need to listen to the voice of the private sector and response in a more promptly manner, whether it is the revision of the routes under Protocol 1 of the Cross Border Transport Agreement (CBTA), a more active role of Border Management Committee in coordinating between member countries, and the need for tangible implementation of cross border tourism facilitation. Secondly, I believe that the beginning of free flow of goods, labor, capital and so on under the AEC is a driving force to push forward the GMS to accelerate industrial cooperation, productivity improvement, and creation of subregional value chain and supply chain. It is also necessary for the agricultural sector to create a more concrete progress in food safety and food security. These efforts inevitably involve the concerns on climate change and natural disaster aspects. Such cooperation will lead to an improved well-being of the people in this subregion. Thirdly, I would like to express my appreciation for all the efforts made in setting up additional mechanism to facilitate the work of GMS in the future, for instance, the Railways Coordination Office and the Regional Coordination Center for Power Trade. Nevertheless, we will need an appropriate management direction of these institutions to ensure their functionality and sustainability. Meanwhile, some of the existing mechanisms which are currently underperforming should also be reconsidered about what needs to be improved, changed, or even dissolution to ensure the efficiency of GMS mechanism. Lastly, in the 3rd Economic Corridor Forum held recently in Vientiane, the Ministers endorsed the Corridor Monitoring System for Transport and Trade Facilitation along the Economic Corridor. I fully support for this endeavor for the reason that it will inform us of the benefits the people of this subregion has received, both directly and indirectly.

4 In addition, in order to transform Transport Corridors into Economic Corridors, it is essential that we put greater efforts into urban development. The presence of well developed border towns and cities along our Economic Corridors will lead to the formation of business clusters and the creation of subregional supply chain. I also believe that capacity of local people and the relevant authorities need to be strengthened by engaging them in the development process of Economic Corridors. In this regard, the Thai government has been making considerable effort. We have recently held two seminars at the provincial level as knowledge platform for GMS and regional cooperation issues. The seminars were very well received by the local officials and business community. From these recent experiences, we now realize that ownership is so crucial to drive Economic Corridor development. I would also like to thank the ADB Thailand Resident Mission for being a co-sponsor our second seminar in Nakhon Phanom province last month. Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen I would like to emphasize that before the New Strategic Framework will be endorsed at the GMS Summit in December, there are three important points which we need to look at. First, transport mode for more energy saving need to be accelerated, particularly the railway connection. Secondly, within the countries, domestic feeder roads have to be improved and developed. It is crucial for domestic development of each country that such feeder roads exist so that each country will be able to benefit more from the existing infrastructure and able to better meet the needs of its people. Lastly, the third point is the improvement and development of border towns and cities along the economic corridor. The discussions during Ministerial Meeting and Ministerial Retreat today are highly significant since they will lay foundation for the future direction of GMS in the next decade. For Thailand, since we are in the process of forming the new government. I would like to ensure that the Royal Thai Government fully commits and certainly continues giving full support to the GMS. Thank you very much.