Thailand prepares to host ACMECS

BANGKOK, Feb 24 (TNA) -- Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha stressed the importance of welcoming heads of state with full honours for the upcoming ACMECS meeting that Thailand will host later this year. Gen Prayut on Friday chaired a meeting at the Government House to prepare the hosting of the 8th Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) conference. Thailand will be hosting the event between June 15-16 at the Shangrila Hotel in Bangkok. The last time that Thailand played host for ACMECS was in 2005. The Prime Minister wanted to meeting to be organised in a more up-to-date and modern manner to facilitate concrete changes in the region. Gen Prayut stated that his attendance of international meetings recently, he found that the priority has shifted from traditional meetings with greater emphasis now being placed on the essence or core of the meetings, the outcome, initial as well as long term commitments of the important decisions. Vitally, sideline bilateral agreements are becoming more frequent benefiting progress as the chances for so many heads of state to meet under such circumstances is rare. Gen Prayut advised the organizing committee to inculcate lessons and examples from the international conferences and adopt them for the 8th ACMECS placing the highest priority on welcoming all heads of state with greatest honor and warmth. (TNA)