Address of Mr Raja Roy Sing, 3 January 1969

Address of Mr Raja Roy Sing
Director, UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Asia
and UNESCO Chief of Mission for Thailand

Your Excellency, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour and privilege for me, on this happy occasion, to bring you the greetings and felicitations of UNESCO. On behalf on UNESCO, I wish also to express specially the Organization's appreciation and gratitude to the Government of Thailand, His Excellency the Prime Minister, His Excellency the Minister of Education and the Thailand National Commission for the generous cooperation with which the Government and the people of Thailand have always supported and aided UNESCO's programmes and activities. The present memorable occasion is yet another landmark in this continuing cooperative partnership. WE in the Organization value it highly and look forward with confidence to its strengthening and deepening in the coming years.

I should like to pay my tribute of appreciation to the officers of the Ministry of Education, notably the Design and Construction Division, for their interest and careful planning which have made it possible for the building to come into existence, providing a home to UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in Asia. We will now find ourselves among visible representations of UNESCO's major fields of service: the Planetarium, opening on the magic casement of scientific knowledge, a school, for the advancement of education, temples and people from all walks of life, for culture and social sciences. Moreover, our close and friendly association with SEAMES is an example of how organizations may cooperate with one another to achieve the common goal of betterment of mankind.

The present occasion is deeply significant to us in yet another way. It marks almost to a day the 20th anniversary of Thailand's membership of UNESCO. It was on 1 January 1949 that Thailand first entered as Member State of UNESCO. On that day the foundation was laid for a cooperative endeavour which through the years has grown and multiplied in many directions. The building of which the foundation stone is laid today is therefore to our mind also a symbol of this fruitful association which has been forged and tempered by twenty years of working together.

UNESCO's action is essentially a two-way traffic in cooperation, each Member State giving to the community of nations as well as receiving from it. This concept is exemplified in a remarkable way in the cooperative relationship with Thailand over the last twenty years. Thailand has taken a leading part in all programmes of UNESCO-scientific, cultural and educational. It has served on the Organization's decision-making bodies; it has received a number of fellows for study here, and acted as a most generous host for important international conferences and meetings. It was here in Bangkok that a few years ago the Asian Development Plan for Education was formulated and serves as a guide to the perspectives of Asian educational development in the coming decade. I many recall that the occasion of that conference also provided the opportunity for the first meeting of the Ministers of Education of Southeast Asian countries which ultimately led to the establishment of SEAMES.

With characteristic generosity the Government of Thailand assisted in the establishment of UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in Asia in Bangkok, following an agreement with UNESCO signed in September 1961. It symbolised the leading role that Thailand has played in promoting regional cooperation.

UNESCO's programmes in Thailand date back twenty years ago when the first mission came here at the request of the Government in February 1949. Since then more than 100 specialists have carried out various assignments in the country; over 200 persons were given fellowships for training and study abroad and about 26 projects have been implemented. Mention may be made in particular of such land-marks as the Chachoengsao Educational Pilot Project, the Thailand-UNESCO Fundamental Education Centre at Ubol, the Thailand UNESCO Rural Teacher Education Project, the Bangkok Institute of Child Study, the Thai National Documentation Centre, the Reading Materials Project, Pilot Project for Chemistry Teaching, etc. The experiences gained from many of these projects have traveled beyond Thailand and influenced similar projects in other countries-another example of the two-way traffic in cooperation. In addition, UNESCO is the executing agency for two Special Fund projects at the Thonburi Technical Institute.

As mentioned earlier, Thailand has been a nerve-centre of regional cooperation in Asia and an active participant in the regional programmes that UNESCO has been supporting through its UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Asia. Thanks to the hospitality of the Government of Thailand and the support of Member States in Asia, the activities and programmes of the Regional Office have been expanding rapidly and now cover all the main sectors of education, namely, educational planning and administration, teacher education, educational research and curriculum development, and school buildings. In addition it serves the nineteen Member States in Asia, from Iran to the Republic of Korea, through its clearing-house programmes. Every year hundreds of scholars and specialists from all over Asia get together in the regional meetings, seminars and workshops organized or assisted by the Office. The Office distributes about 30,000 documents every year to Member States in Asia, disseminating information about education. It is therefore a matter of deep gratification to us that we can look forward now to having a building where our expanding activities can be suitably accommodated. On behalf of UNESCO, may I express once again our gratitude to the Government of Thailand, and our felicitations on this memorable occasion.

Last updated: 08 November 2001
Last updated: 08 November 2001	Back	Top	Next