The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand will host the Tenth Coordinating Meeting of the Thailand-Singapore Civil Service Exchange Programme (CSEP) on 19-20 January 2011 at the Plaza Athenee Hotel, Bangkok. Mr. Kasit Piromya, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand and Mr. George Yeo, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Singapore, will co-officiate the opening ceremony of the Meeting on 19 January 2011.
The Tenth CSEP Meeting is co-chaired by Mr. Theerakun Niyom, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and Mr. Chee Wee Kiong, Second Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore. The common theme of the Tenth CSEP “Thailand-Singapore: Dealing with Demographic Challenges” — is timely and addresses a domestic issue of mutual concern to our two countries on demographic transformation. At this Meeting, the Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security of Thailand together with the Ministries of Health, Social Welfare Youth and Sports and Manpower of Singapore initiated a cross-cluster project on “Long Term Care for the Elderly” to respond to the multi- dimensional impacts of demographic challenges on the societies of both countries.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Singapore last visited Thailand in 2008 for the Eight CSEP Meeting. On his visit to Thailand for the Tenth CSEP, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Singapore is scheduled to have a meeting with Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya on bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest and pay courtesy calls on the Prime Minister on 20 January 2011. This visit reaffirms the close and cordial ties between Thailand and Singapore.
Since its inception in 1998, CSEP has been an important bilateral mechanism in promoting closer contact and enhancing cooperation between various agencies of both countries, guided by the overall vision of the Singapore-Thailand Enhanced Partnership (STEP) framework. STEP is a broad vision for a long-term strategic partnership between both countries comprising four pillars: (a) civil service exchanges; (b) enhanced economic relations; (c) defence relations; and (d) people-to-people cooperation. At present, CSEP comprises 13 clusters of cooperation : Education; Legal and Judicial; Social Welfare, Youth and Sports cooperation; Civil Service Cooperation; Media, Culture and the Arts; Transport; Manpower; Information and Communication Technology; Science and Technology; Technical Cooperation; MFA-to-MFA Cooperation; Health, and Environment.
For further information, please contact the Press Division, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel.02-6435170, Fax.02-6435169, E-mail: div0704@mfa.go.th