Buon Giorno! Good morning distinguished media. Good morning to everyone. Thank you for coming to Villa Thai for the announcement of the special event to be organized in Rome later this month.

Joining here with me are the representative of the EUR S.p.A., our local partner who offers the venue for the event and the representative of Thai agencies in Rome, namely the Agricultural Office, Commercial Office, Naval Attache Office, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Thai Airways International.

The Embassy and the Thai agencies will organize “Thai Festival 2011” at Pietrangeli Garden along EUR lagoon, near ENI Building, during Friday, 27th to Sunday, 29th May 2011 to promote Thai culture and products and also with an objective to strengthen better understanding between peoples of our two countries through social and cultural interaction.

The daily event which will start from 10.00 hrs in the morning to 22.00 hrs. in the evening will comprise cultural performances, Thai silk fashion show, exhibition, demonstration of batik and umbrella painting and fruit carving and the selling of Thai food and products.

The cultural performances on stage include a series of Thai dances, regional dances, classical dance as well as a cultural procession on the lawn. The demonstration of Muay Thai or Thai boxing will be performed by the International Muay Boran Academy in Rome who will show their skill and technique of the best fighting. The highlight of the event is Thai Silk Fashion Show which will show 30 modern costumes made from Thai silk designed by a Thai famous designer and will be modeled by students from Faculty of Moda & Costume, La Sapienza University, to which we are grateful for their kind cooperation.

The demonstration of Thai culture also includes silk weaving to show how delicate of work in producing good quality of silk. The visitors will have the opportunity to taste various kinds of Thai fruits and fruit juices such as mango, pomelo and coconut juice. Thai food will be sold at promotion price while there will be demonstration of cooking of some Thai dishes too.

The visitors will find a very good deal of Thai Airways’ promotion and a good package of tourism promotion for traveling to the amazing Thailand which is the value destination that has witnessed by more than 170,000 Italian tourists annually, There will be also demonstration of Thai spa and Thai traditional massage from a quality spa house in Rome.

Besides, there will be about a dozen shops selling Thai souvenir, handicrafts, food products and the introduction of quality television and IT products which are made in Thailand and carry Italian brand name.
The opening ceremony of the Festival will take place on Friday, 27th May 2011 at 18.30 hrs. for the invited guests, at which we are expecting the Mayor of Rome or his representative to preside over the ceremony.

The Embassy has received a good cooperation from the EUR S.p.A. and the local authorities concerned in preparing this event, for which I would like to express my appreciation to those peoples concerned. We believe that the festival will add a lively activity to Rome and we contribute the event as a part to celebrate 150 years of Italian Unification this year. It is expected that the event will attract a large number of local peoples and visitors and we look forward for a successful outcome.

The Embassy and the Thai agencies have organized Thai festival in Italy from time to time. In 2005, the Embassy hosted a week-long Thai Festival at Auditorium and got a great success. In 2007, we organized another festival as a one-day event at a garden along EUR lagoon as well and left good impression to those who had the opportunity to join that splendid presentation. So, it is a time this year to allow our fellow Italian to witness the best of Thai culture, the taste of Thai cuisine and the quality of Thai products once again.

I also would like to take this opportunity to announce about another project of the Thai Commercial Office who will join Autogrill, the leading food chain for travelers, to introduce and promote Thai food at its outlet. They started their cooperation by organizing Thai food week at various Ciao Restaurants in many airports all over Italy during the first two weeks of last December and got high positive response from the customers and travelers which make them decide to continue the promotion this year.

The coming promotion comprises three parts. Firstly, Thai Food Week will be organized at Ciao Restaurant at Terminal 3 of Fiumicino Airport from 29th May to 5th June. Secondly, Thai food will be promoted at “Asia Corner” of Autogrill outlet at Rome Fiumicino Airport and Milan Malpensa Airport from June to December 2011. And thirdly, Thai food promotion will be held for 6 months during November 2011 to April 2012 at Rome Fiumicino Satellite. These would be a very good opportunity for the Italian and the travelers to enjoy the taste of various dishes of Thai cuisine during these promotions.

And at this point, I would like to request kind cooperation of all distinguished media to help spread out the news of the coming Thai Festival and Thai food promotion to the local readers and viewers in order to invite them to participate in the coming special events and with a hope to further strengthen good relation between our two countries.

I, now, would like to allow representative of EUR S.p.A. and the Thai agencies to speak in details about their contribution to the event.
I thank you for your kind attention.