Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — President Rodrigo Duterte and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha emphasized on Tuesday the importance of sustaining the growth and development of the economic, agricultural, and tourism sectors between Philippines and Thailand.
In his joint statement with Prayut, Duterte said, “We reaffirmed a long-standing friendship and renewed common commitment to bring our countries and peoples closer in greater cooperation.”
The President arrived in Bangkok late Monday evening for a two-day official visit.
He said the two nations also needed to address traditional and emerging threats to security, which include “transnational crimes such as terrorism and violent extremism, piracy at sea, as well as trafficking in persons, and in illicit drugs.”
Known for his strong stand against illegal drugs in the Philippines, Duterte said the two nations would bolster cooperation to bilateral, regional, and international levels to efficiently address the societal “scourges and menace.”
“We stressed the importance of our defense cooperation to achieve these goals and looked forward to the inaugural Joint Committee on Military Cooperation this year,” Duterte said.
Diplomatic relations between Philippines and Thailand date back 67 years, and Duterte is keen on keeping the ties “moving forward to a future of greater peace, progress and prosperity.”
Economic and agricultural growth
Being members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Duterte emphasized the Thai-Philippine economic relations, with trade value of over $9 billion in 2016.
“With our emphasis on combatting corruption, eradicating criminality, and dismantling the illegal drug trade apparatus, we are hopeful of more investments coming from Thailand,” he said.
“We agreed on the need to expand and intensify two-way trade and investments, taking full advantage of the complementarities and synergies of our interest.”
The two countries are both mainly agricultural, so the President also recognized the importance of cooperation in this field.
“We look to greater cooperation and exchange of best practices in irrigation, artificial rain, livestock and fisheries, and application of technology for soil and water conservation,” Duterte said. “Our agriculture sectors should rightly be sectors of national growth.”
Reviving tourism ties
With the Philippines currently holding the ASEAN chairmanship, Duterte said both countries were exerting efforts to make the association “more people-oriented and people centered.”
This meant harnessing the tourism sector for national and regional development, with the Philippines pushing for activities such as promotion of joint tourism destinations.
“Certainly, we need to ramp up technical and capacity building programs to fully realize the potentials of our young populations. With science and technology a key area for development, both sides agreed to promote exchanges and interactions between relevant institutions to enhance our capabilities,” Duterte said.
The two countries also pushed for the completion of the Framework of the Code of Conduct in 2017, over the highly-contested South China Sea.
Duterte added both nations emphasized the need for the full implementation of the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in South China Sea.
While Thailand does not lay claims on the disputed islands, it has reached out to other claimants such as China to resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, Philippine Tourism secretary Wanda Teo signed the implementing Program of Tourism Cooperation 2017-2022 with Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul.
The program aims to revive the 23-year old tourism cooperation agreement between the two nations, dating back to a tourism memorandum of agreement signed on March 24, 1993.
The Tourism department under the Duterte administration already has cooperation agreements with China, Cambodia, and Turkey.
“Philippines’ tourism program may yet gain an added boost with this concrete commitment for tourism cooperation with Thailand as a result of President Duterte’s fruitful State visit in Bangkok this week,” Teo said.
Visitor arrivals from Thailand to the Philippines grew by 8.8 percent in 2016, translating to about 48,000 visitors. This constitutes about 10 percent of the total arrivals from the ASEAN.
