On 13 January 2012, Mr. George L. Kirkland, Vice Chairman of the Board and Executive Vice President of Chevron Corporation, together with other senior executives from Chevron, paid a courtesy call on Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul on the occasion of the former’s visit to Thailand to donate the sum of 1 million USD to the Chaipattana Foundation as part of its flood relief efforts. In this regard, Mr. Kirkland took the opportunity to inform the Minister about Chevron’s chairmanship of the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC) in 2012 and the visit of its delegation to Thailand in March 2012.
Foreign Minister Surapong expressed appreciation to Chevron for contributing to the flood relief efforts of the Thai Government earlier, as well as the recent donation to the Chaipattana Foundation. He also informed Mr. Kirkland of the Thai Government’s plan in developing infrastructure and water management. Mr. Kirkland congratulated the Thai Government for handling the natural disaster, as well as informed the Foreign Ministry of his discussion with the Chaipattana Foundation on how to utilize and allocate the donation and Chevron’s readiness in bringing in the company’s staffs to help support Thailand’s flood relief effort.
Mr. Kirkland then praised ASEAN’s development, especially developments in Myanmar. Foreign Minister Surapong took the opportunity to share the outcome of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in Siem Reap, Cambodia with Mr. Kirkland, whereby the meeting supported the positive developments in Myanmar as well as Myanmar assuming the ASEAN chairmanship in 2014.
Towards the end, Mr. Kirkland said that the Asia-Pacific region is important to Chevron. Chevron is considered the largest producer of gas and oil in Thailand and Indonesia, the largest gas producer in Bangladesh, and has investment projects in Vietnam, China and Australia. Chevron believed that Asia would be the region with the biggest economic growth in the next 20-30 years. On this occasion, Mr. Kirkland also invited the Foreign Minister to visit Chevron’s headquarter in the United States.
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