1. Intervention by H.E. Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva,Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, at the 8th
ASEM, Session II: Advance on the Path of Sustainable Development 5 October 2010, Brussels
(5/10/2010)
Mr. Chairman,
The theme of this summit is about improving the quality of life, about well-being and about the dignity of
all human beings, so the issue of sustainability is right at the heart of the theme of this
summit. Yesterday, I already expressed my support for the President of Korea s attempt to refocus the
G20, attention also on the issue of development and MDG s.
I think there has been a broad agreement as we have been hearing colleagues from around the table, so I
would like to just add a few points. The first is that in order to achieve sustainable development, it is
important to recognize that this isn t just about decisions of the government, we need to engage the private
sector, we need to engage civil society so that we are on the same wavelength in terms of what kind of
growth we want to generate, particularly the quality of that growth. So it s important that when we make
decisions we have to keep in mind whatever proposals we make they are actually market friendly and will
actually receive cooperation and create the right incentives for the private sector to deliver on the goals
that we want to achieve.
Secondly, in reference to the Declaration made in Beijing where there are three pillars, I think it is also
important to recognize that each individual pillar actually complements each other. It s better to see this
in a holistic terms rather than seeing each pillar individually and perhaps feel that sometimes they can
actually conflict each other. So with these general principles in mind I would just like to make four main
points.
The first is that as far as development is concerned there continues to be a need to invest in infrastructure,
in creating networks whether it s transport, communication, energy in order to actually reach out to

2. millions of people who are still being left behind. In this connection, I would just like to point out that
ASEAN, in our effort to achieve integration in five year s time as an economic community, has placed
great emphasis on connectivity issue and we see the role of our partners -- already Korea, China and Japan
have expressed keen interest in creating this connectivity in the ASEAN region and we welcome
European participation as well.
The second point is the issue of social cohesion. And here there can be no better investment than
investment in our people. Already there has been mention of possible cooperations as far as the issues of
education and building on capacity is concerned. But I think there is a broader issue of the need to create
welfare systems and social safety nets in a number of economies. And I think we live in very interesting
times where I think the Asian economies, while they are recovering and growing well, need to put more
commitment as far as the building up of a welfare system for our people is concerned, at the same time in
trying to achieve fiscal sustainability in the European economies you are also trying to consolidate or, may
be, adapt some of the systems that you built up and it would be good that you can share your experience,
and we both meet our challenges to, perhaps, achieve what would be the right balance as far as the
creating human security and at the same time achieving fiscal sustainability. I would also like to mention
that the issue of economic migrant is very important for Asia and Europe and there are a lot of what we
can learn from each other so that we can provide services not just only to our people but also those who
are coming to our borders.
On the issue of the environment, green growth, I think in two-year s time we should be in Laos and I think
it would very good to take the experience of Laos and her effort to achieve green growth, and in doing so
of course trying to create the right incentives not just for the private sector but for the people in terms of
their aspiration of how they want to achieve prosperity.
The last point I would like to make is that Thailand as the forum s issue based leader on food security, we
would do all we can to make sure that we develop an ASEM food security framework to strengthen our

3. cooperation on the issue.
And finally, let me just also lend my full support for the need to have a joint political will to make sure
that the Cancun and the Doha Rounds become a success. Thank you.
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