His Excellency Mr. TIAN Xuebin (เตียน เหอบิ่น), vice minister of Water Resources of China, 

Her Excellency Ms. Bounkham Vorachit (บุญคำ วอระจิต), vice minister of Natural Resources and Environment of Lao PDR 

Excellencies, 

Distinguished guests,  

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

· On behalf of Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand, and all Thai Delegates, it is my great pleasure to attend the first Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Forum with the theme of “Water Partnership for Sustainable Development, and it is also my honor to deliver the Statement here today. 

· First of all, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the Government of China for the invitation, along with the Lancang Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center for organizing this important event. I wish the Forum a huge success. 

Excellencies, 

Ladies and Gentlemen,  

· Mekong River is an international river of essential cooperation on water resource management, bringing us together from upstream and downstream with the history of good neighborliness and strong friendship. It helps us generate prosperity, as well as food, water and energy security for the well-being of our people. 

· Mekong River Basin itself has its own potential to grow through shared utilization of water resources among the trade connectivity in the region. However, considerations of both positive and negative impacts from economic development have to be addressed in balance and also in a sustainable way, which is clearly in line with 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

· China and Thailand have had an intensive cooperation for Lancang-Mekong on capacity building and emergency cooperation.  

· Through this mechanism, it will strengthen our cooperation with policy dialogue, sharing of necessary data and information, and will increase capacity for trans-boundary water resource management that contributes a large benefit to all countries, in particular; flood and drought mitigation and management under climate change phenomena. 

· Moreover, the Memorandum of Understanding on Projects of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund between Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand and the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Kingdom of Thailand has been signed on 11 October 2018, in Bangkok, Thailand. 

· The projects will be served as a mechanism to respond on Lancang-Mekong Cooperation through the Transboundary Mechanism supporting Hydropower and Climate Change Adaptation issues, and supported by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and the Government of China under the 2017 Special Fund. 

· As we know, the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation was established and continues focusing on the practical results. The cooperation mechanism was jointly set up by six member countries, the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation is the first one of involving the six riparian countries in an equitable manner with the aim of benefit sharing as water resources are vital for the well-being of our people.  

· Thailand attaches a great importance to the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation and will work closely with other member countries to push forward our cooperation to a wider and deeper level, through policy dialogues, joint research, capacity building and cooperative projects. 

· The Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center serves as a platform for the water resources cooperation among the six member countries. Thailand will actively support the development of this center to enable it to play an important role for our water resources cooperation. 

· Additionally, Thailand pays attention to enhance environment-friendly livelihood for the people living by the Mekong Region. This could be seen concretely by formulating the twenty-year long-term National Strategy from 2018 to 2037 that emphasizes on basin-wide management, public participation and especially,  

international cooperation on technical exchange with Lancang-Mekong Cooperation in order to alleviate damages, and to move towards sustainable water management. 

Excellencies, 

Ladies and Gentlemen,  

· I would like to express my gratitude to the Government of China again for the effort to arrange an important Forum for water resources sustainable development in Lancang- Mekong Region. I wish all the participants to gain fruitful benefits from the constructive and meaningful technical sharing, to enjoy the productive discussions which will be shared among member countries, and to successfully complete this Forum. 

· Thailand stands ready to cooperate in every possible way to support and promote these joint activities and work closely with our neighboring countries for the sake of the Lancang-Mekong cooperation, and for our people.  

Thank you.