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Thailand and Germany celebrate 60 years of successful Thai-German cooperation for sustainable development, aiming to disseminate knowledge, experience and implementation for sustainable development at Vithes Samosorn, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
 
The cooperation began on 9 October 1956 under a Thai-German agreement on economic and development cooperation. During the past 60 years, the two countries have jointly implemented more than 300 development projects, covering a wide range of to
pics, including agriculture and food safety, climate change, efficient energy and renewable energy consumption, economic development and employment, environment and natural resources, urban and industrial development, and good governance.

H.E. Mr. Peter Prügel, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Thailand, said: “Thai-German cooperation has been a success story throughout the past 60 years. Together, we have been able to contribute to the impressive development of Thailand from a developing country to a leading economy and attractive business location for investors today. One key area has always been the education sector. The Thai-German Technical School founded in 1959 has, for example, provided skilled labour force that was the base for Thailand’s industrial development. This school later became King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB) and, today, still is a leading institution in the field of technical education.

While we continue to cooperate in the education sector by collaborating with academia and the business sector to improve the quality of vocational training, our cooperation has also adapted to new developments. As Thailand has transformed from a recipient to a provider of aid for sustainable development, we now jointly focus on pressing global challenges such as combating climate change or promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency. Other areas of our cooperation include sustainable transport, agriculture, urban and business development. Given its attractiveness Thailand has become a hub for Germany’s activities in the whole ASEAN region and beyond. This is also highlighted by the fact that Germany’s development cooperation staff from all over Asia is trained at the GIZ-training facility in Bangkok.”
 
Mr. Panyarak Poolthup, Deputy Permanent Secretary, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, said “Thailand and Germany has had good cooperation in various fields for more than 60 years. The success during that time has been due to matching ideas between the two countries, the philosophy of sufficiency economy pioneered by the late King on the Thai side, and the concept of a social market economy on the German side. Projects created through Thai-German cooperation not only helped the business sector, but also reduced the negative impact on society and the environment. This path of sustainable development and the success of these projects could not have been achieved without the determination and cooperation between the public and private sectors. Moreover, the experience and success from the cooperation on this project can be used to develop trilateral cooperation, leading to the current assistance for Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Timor-Leste. This path of cooperation will certainly continue, with a balance in economic, social and environmental concerns for sustainable development, which is our objective.”
 
From now on, the Thai-German development cooperation will continue to focus on economic and social development, with greater emphasis on agriculture and food safety, environmental protection and climate change, efficient energy consumption, urban and industrial development, as well as sustainable consumption and production. Moreover, Thailand and Germany will continue to jointly implement the project and impart the lessons learned to other developing countries in the region and worldwide.

For more photos of the event, click here.