Mr. Chairman,
Mr. President of IFAD,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is again a great pleasure for me to address the 33rd Session of IFAD Governing Council.

First of all, let me express on behalf of the Government of Thailand, our condolences to the government of Haiti and its people for the tragedy caused by the earthquake. Response of international agencies and donors by their rapid move of assistance was impressive, striving for saving lives of affected people for the time-being while seeking ways to build back their livelihoods in a longer term.

Like others, Thailand has provided assistance to Haiti. We provided, at the early stage, 20,000 tons of rice and some cash donation both from the government and the Thai people. An ad-hoc inter-agency committee, established by the Government is seeking to provide other assistance at a later stage.

For a large number of Haitian people who desperately moved back to the countryside, we believe that a development agency, like IFAD, can play a pivotal role on recovery and rehabilitation.  Agricultural and rural development is a key tool to rebuild their living and national food security in a long term.

We are starting the first year of the Eighth Replenishment of IFAD at the most crucial moment when vulnerable people around the world are in need of more actions in the field than written commitments in a paper. The theme of the session is therefore the most relevant and timely one. We very much hope that deliberations made during the session will be constructive and contribute to greater efforts in development projects in the field.

With regard to contribution to the Eighth Replenishment, Thailand has fulfilled its part by a payment of its contribution, early this year, at a doubled amount of that paid to the previous replenishments.

Although Thailand is neither a big donor nor a regular recipient country of IFAD, cooperation with IFAD is on a good progress.  With its favorable location in the centre of Southeast Asia and its achievement in agricultural development, Thailand is seen by IFAD as a potential donor in terms of its technical expertise. Recently, IFAD has provided trainings for some government officials in charge of evaluation of agricultural projects with the aim of establishing, in Thailand, a center of expertise in this area to provide trainings to other countries in the region. Now, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and IFAD are on the process of formulating Partnership Strategy in the framework of South-South Cooperation. The Strategy Framework is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Therefore, we do hope that, in the near future, the scope of our assistance will be expanded to complement the existing one provided bilaterally, on a G. to G. basis.

The Thai Government believes that development in neighboring countries is essential for the achievement of poverty reduction and food security in the whole region.  Greater investment in agricultural activities in support of a Government may be sought from civil society, private sector, or international financial organizations.  Partnership along the production chain should also be established in such a way that each partner can benefit without overlooking small farmers.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate Thailand’s commitments made during the World Summit on Food Security last November.  We stand ready to cooperate with IFAD or with any countries and institutions to translate words into actions so as to achieve our common goals.  As an agricultural producing and exporting country, we are doing our best to feed our people, and, without adoption of any food export restrictions, we will contribute to feed the world both at present and in the future.

17 February 2010