20.09.10 Statement by His Excellency Mr. Kasit Piromya Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand at the High-level Plenary Meeting of the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals New York

 

Mr. President,Excellencies,Distinguished Delegates,
During the past decade since the Millennium Declaration was adopted, theinternational and regional circumstances have changed profoundly, posing several threats andchallenges to our development. Just a few years back, there have been a sequence of crises,from food and fuel to the financial crisis, and all of them have rolled back our developmentefforts. In addition to these crises, the changing climate has proved itself another threat topeople’s security. Its negative effects include more severe and frequent natural disasters whichbadly affect people’s lives worldwide. It is obvious that we are at one of the most criticaljunctures of humankind.
Mr. President,
From this day until the target year of the MDGs in 2015, there will be severalbenchmarks relating to Sustainable Development, including the climate change negotiationsand the Rio+20 Conference. We have to put these jigsaw pieces together to ensure theachievement of internationally agreed development goals in a sustainable manner.
In this connection, I would like to share with you my thoughts based on theexperiences of the Thai Government as follows;
Firstly, Good Governance is critical to the establishment of an effectiveadministration which can ensure that people will benefit from development strategies in a fairmanner. Decentralization of the public administration, including fiscal management, andcoherence of work among national, regional, and local levels are important. Developmentplans at the provincial level must be in line with the national and regional strategic plans. InThailand, we have also conducted pilot projects to follow up on the achievement of the MDGsat the provincial level to ensure that the benefits from development can be distributed fairly inthe community. It is also important to recognize the role of civil society as they can play avital part in ensuring good governance at all levels. Indeed, before I came to the GeneralAssembly, I had a fruitful meeting with groups from academia and civil society in Thailand todiscuss and exchange views on how Thailand should proceed on development to benefit thepeople beyond the goals and date set in the MDGs.
Secondly, the development agenda must be people-centered. The Royal ThaiGovernment considers people as the most important and valuable national resource. This iswhy we have focused our development agenda on human security and human development.- On human security, we have implemented several social policies, includingsocial safety nets and public health policy to ensure people greater access to social securityservices and health care coverage. Economic policies on agriculture and industry are alsoimportant to help alleviate poverty and hunger and in particular to ensure food security.

- On human development, we have focused on education and skills developmenttraining. The education system has been reformed to ensure a life-long learning process andall people’s access to equal education which is cost-free from kindergarten to high school. Inaddition, the Government has also raised the vocational and tertiary education standards andalso developed and trained all levels of workers to broaden their knowledge and skills to meettechnological changes and market demand.
Thirdly, it is critical to enhance international cooperation to ensure thatdeveloping countries can keep up with the development trend and be on track to achieve theMDGs and other internationally agreed development goals. International cooperation, be theytraditional North-South, South-South, and Trilateral Cooperation, must be demand-oriented soas to ensure that assistance can meet the needs fully. International cooperation, especially inexchanges of knowledge and skills as well as in providing sound and appropriate technologyand technological knowledge to help developing countries deal with the negative effects ofclimate change, is also critical. Such cooperation would enable developing countries to adaptthemselves and carry out their development plans to achieve the MDGs. Our emphasis on thepeople has meant that our development cooperation fully addresses the importance of humansecurity and human development. Thus, we have focused our development cooperationprogrammes on three major sectors: agricultural development to ensure food security; healthservice enhancement to ensure people’s wellness and access to health service; and humanresource development to promote capacity building for individuals and SMEs development asa means to ensure employment and job creation.
Fourthly, it is important not only to achieve the MDGs but also to ensure thesustainability of development progress. We have to think about achieving the MDGs in a morestrategic manner by starting with setting some goals, for example, the eradication of extremepoverty and hunger as an immediate target. Achieving some goals first can ease the way toachieve the other goals and this makes achieving the MDGs more attainable. For long-termsustainability, it is crucial to proceed further from the MDGs towards SustainableDevelopment. In light of the changing climate, we have to ensure that our developmentprocess helps enhance economic growth along with good governance for the benefit of thepeople at large while preventing our country from further environmental degradation as well.
Mr. President,Distinguished Delegates,
In closing, I would like to reiterate that to pursue Sustainable Development in allthe three pillars, namely economic development, social development, and environmentalprotection, it is important to ensure a paradigm shift towards a more balanced, inclusive, andgreen growth.
Thank you.

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