PM Lee Hsien Loong at the Joint Press Conference with General Prayut Chan-o-cha, PM of the Kingdom of Thailand

Your Excellency General Prayut Chan-o-cha
Ministers
Ladies and Gentlemen 

First, may I welcome Prime Minister General Prayut and his delegation to Singapore. It’s a very timely visit, because Singapore is celebrating the 50th anniversary of our independence this year and it’s also the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Thailand.

We had a good discussion at our Leaders’ Retreat just now. We reviewed our relations and cooperation in many areas, and discussed a whole range of issues and explored how we can strengthen our relations further. That’s why I am very pleased to have just witnessed the signings, together with the Prime Minister, of a revised Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement as well as various MOUs between our agencies as well as our two business federation. These agreements will lay the foundation for us to take our cooperation further forward.

We are both keen to deepen our economic ties and promote our business-to-business relations. Already these ties are strong. The bilateral trade has been steadily growing. Singapore is now Thailand’s second largest investor and from ASEAN, in fact, Singapore is the top investor in Thailand in 2013. Our two countries are highly connected through air links. Many of our people travel back and forth. There are many direct flights between Singapore and now six Thai cities, and many low-cost carriers, which make it a very affordable weekend outing. So every year, 800,000 Singaporeans visit Thailand and half a million Thais visit Singapore.

But even then, we can do more. So we encourage our businesses to explore further opportunities, and that’s why we have arranged for General Prayut to meet Singapore businesses at a business forum tomorrow. It will be an outstanding opportunity for our businesses to hear first-hand about the openings and the possibilities in Thailand.

There is a lot of scope for us to cooperate. We discussed how we can do so in cruise tourism – in fact, we just signed an MOU on cruise tourism – because that will boost our tourism offerings and develop the cruise sector in Southeast Asia. We also exchanged views on regional developments. We reaffirmed our cooperation in ASEAN and our commitment to establish the ASEAN Community by the end of this year, and discussed how to strengthen our cooperation in cyber security and counter terrorism, given the threat of terrorism and ISIS in the region. We also talked about continuing with ongoing cooperation mechanisms, particularly the Civil Service Exchange Programme (CSEP) and the STEER, Singapore-Thailand Enhanced Economic Relationship programme. Thailand is hosting the next meetings and will do so this year.

We are in the middle of the Southeast Asian Games right now, and this SEA Games is a good opportunity for our athletes and their supporters to get to know each other better and develop our people-to-people links. I congratulated the Prime Minister on the many gold medals that the Thai team has won so far, and particularly for the Thai football team’s victory yesterday evening, against Vietnam. They are now into the football semi-finals. I told the Prime Minister that Thailand always does well in the SEA Games and I am confident at the end of the Games, Thailand will be right up there with the medal tally. I know you are going to attend a game tomorrow, Prime Minister, to lend support your athletes, and I wish the Thai team every success. 

So I would like to thank the Prime Minister for a productive Retreat, one that will take our relations further forward. As a close friend of Thailand and a fellow ASEAN member, we are happy to see Thailand stable and progressing. The Prime Minister briefed me just now on the steps he is taking within Thailand and the steps forward for Thailand and his roadmap. We stand by the people of Thailand, and are happy to see Thailand succeed. So thank you, General Prayut.

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