On 19 August 2019, His Excellency Dr. Atirat Rattaset, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Transport of the Kingdom of Thailand attended the inauguration of the Regional Workshop on “United Nations Assistance Framework: A Process to mainstream the maritime sector”. The event has been jointly hosted by the Marine Department and Port Authority of Thailand in a close collaboration with International Maritime Organization (IMO) and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UN ESCAP) during 19 – 20 August 2019 at United Nations Conference Centre, Ratchadamnoen Nok, Bangkok. At the opening ceremony, the Deputy Minister was honoured by the presence of Mr.Hongjoo Ham, Deputy Executive of UN ESCAP, Mr.Bekir Sitki Ustaoglu, Head of Asia and Pacific Section, Technical Cooperation Division, IMO, Mr. Neil Buhne, Head of the Regional Sustainable Development Cooperation Office, Mr. Somchai Sumanuskajonkul, Deputy Director General of Marine Department of Thailand, Lt.JG. Kamolsak Phromprayoon, Director General, Port Authority of Thailand, officers as well as other dignitaries.
As a chairperson of hosting country, the Deputy Minister delivered the remarks to welcome the high-levels from international agencies including UN ESCAP and IMO as well as distinguished participants from 18 countries with over 54 people. The Deputy Minister highlighted that this event will certainly enable cooperation among international maritime regulatory agencies as it provides a platform to exchange their knowledge; to introduce mechanism connectivity in the standards of safety and marine environment, and to move forward the progression on maritime transport aspect under IMO - who has great missions to set standard and procedure for safety of navigation and marine environment protection. In addition, those related agencies would be able to apply those obtained from the workshop to significantly formulate their maritime strategic plans towards the direction of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNDSGs). To these purposes, Thailand initiated on international maritime agency collaboration by firstly arranging such regional workshop.
To conclude, the result of this meeting will demonstrate the effective commitments by international obligation to support IMO’s and UN ESCAP’s missions, particularly strategy planning on maritime transport in compliance with UNSDGs. Furthermore, it enhances the roles of Thailand in the international forums and will relatively support the next election for Member of the IMO Council in late 2019. To these endeavors, keeping the roles as Member of the IMO Council, Thailand will be able to manage; set the collective policy, receive the technical assistance through training course, as well as improve the standards under IMO Conventions and its instruments. Thereby, Thailand can strengthen its progress on maritime transport to be accepted internationally which will consequently be beneficial for the maritime business and overall economy.
Source : Marine Department, Thailand