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The Chairperson of the Thai-Singapore Parliamentary Friendship Group led the commission to pay a visit and join a bilateral meeting with some of Singapore's top high-profile people a follows: 1) A courtesy visit to H.E. Mr. Charles Chong, Vice President of Singapore Parliament. 2) Bilateral meeting with Ms.Foo Mee Har, Vice President and a Member of the Parliament of Singapore, Southeast Asia Region. 3) Bilateral meeting with Minister H.E. Ms. Josephine Teo, Senior State Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In each meeting agenda, both sides exchanged views as follows:
1) Overview of the relationship between Thailand and Singapore
Thailand and Singapore established their diplomatic relations in 1965. In 2015, both countries organized the activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Thai-Singapore relations, such as the Singapore sent the International Orchestra to exhibit in Bangkok and produced postage stamps for the 50th anniversary. In Thailand, the celebration was also held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Throughout the years, the relations of the two countries ran smoothly and had close proximity at all aspects, including politics, economy and society. There were many supporting factors that contributed to the creation of continuity and cooperation, such as regular exchange of visits between each other. Besides, Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Siam Boromrajakumari (Royal title at that time) visited Singapore frequently. In 2016, Her Royal Highness made an official visit to Singapore to preside over the opening ceremony of the Global Young Scientists Summit 2016. In addition, General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of Thailand, made an official visit to Singapore in 2015 to celebrate the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the establishment of official relations Thai-Singapore. Ambassador H.E. Mrs. Halimah Yacob, President of the Singapore Parliament, made an official visit to Thailand as a guest of the Thai Parliament in 2013 to promote relations at the legislative level of both countries.
President of the Thai-Singapore Parliamentarians Friendship Group mentioned the progress on the operating Political Road Map of Thailand that it is in the process of constitutional drafting then it will enter the referendum stage. If the public approves the draft constitution, an act will be enacted and will lead to elections and government formation. It is expected to be able to arrange a general election and a new government will be held around the end of 2017, which Singapore praises the road map of Thailand. He is confident that Thailand will be successful in administration. Furthermore, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore respects Thailand's political situation and will not interfere with the internal affairs of Thailand, including measures to punish and definitely will not halt cooperation in various fields with Thailand.
Regarding economic relations, Singapore is Thailand's No. 2 trading partner in ASEAN and Thailand's No. 6 trading partner in the world. The Singapore Government has a policy to encourage and support Singaporean businessmen to invest more in foreign countries. According to the past surveys, Thailand was one of the top countries that Singaporean businessmen invested with. The important group is the hotels and factories. Both Thailand and Singapore show confidence that the cooperation will be expanded to be more inclusive at both bilateral and multilateral levels as the members of the ASEAN Community.
2) Military relations
Thailand and Singapore have close military relations and cooperation with the three armies. For Army cooperation, there is a combined ground training program called the "Kocha Singa'' code which doesn't focus on the combatting but with its aims to help and manage the disasters.
While the navy has a meeting between the highest commanding officer of the Navy in the ASEAN region on a regular basis each year at the bilateral level. There is an operational training called "Exercise Sing Siam '' together annually. In addition, the Royal Thai Navy has sent officers to join the maritime security duties in Singapore and the state of Malacca as well. The cooperation of the Air force was originally a bilateral training called "Air Thaising'' that had existed since 1983, but it was later switched to a multilateral training called "Cope Tiger", attended by the United States Air Force. Both countries believe that multilateral training will provide an opportunity to learn advanced equipment and new tactics in air combat.
3) Tourism
After the explosion at the Ratchaprasong Intersection, the number of tourists visiting Thailand decreased. Thai-Singapore Parliamentary Friendship Group has invited Singapore tourists to travel to Thailand because the situation in Thailand has returned to normal. Moreover, the government sector also had measures for security that provide the confidence to tourists. On this issue, Singapore expressed confidence that there would be Singapore tourists travelling to Thailand more because Thailand is a country with various tourist attractions including many important histories and beautiful natural attractions. It was found that the provinces that are the most popular among Singaporean tourists are Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket
4) Mass communication
The President of the Thailand-Singapore Parliamentary Friendship Group praises the work of the media, both on television, the radio and newspaper that have strong laws governing, regulation and supervision on the work of the media in Singapore on the issue. Singapore expressed the opinion that the freedom of the press is the most important thing. The media has the right to present anything or any aspect as long as they are the fact that really happens as well as the right of the people to speak or express their opinions freely. However, the media and the people of Singapore are aware of the extremely stringent legal penalties. Therefore, presenting any news or information that is not true; presenting sensitive information that may cause divisions in society will be prosecuted according to Laws regardless of the action located in or outside Singapore. Singapore considers the online media control related to children and young people important. It develops law and technology to cover and keep pace with the change of society.
5) Aging Society
Since 1965, Singapore has developed tremendous public health, making the population live longer. In addition, the income of the population increases, resulting in lower mortality rates. The population has grown so fast that the government has to announce the limitation of having children. However, now the government has changed the policy to encourage the citizens to have more children. The government takes tax deduction measures for the parents with children including the expense burden for parents also providing benefits and giving scholarships to more children. However, the values have changed for example the modern parents tend to have one child at the present in order to be able to raise children as best as possible. Moreover, the young couple separate from their family after getting married. Furthermore, young people of new generation are successful in the career and believe that they can support themselves and they enjoy single life, so they do not want to get married or have the burden of raising children. Marriage and birth rates relatively declined. In addition, the students who study abroad, choose to work abroad permanently after the graduation. All of these are the important reasons that make many elderly people live alone. For this reason, the Singapore Government has established a Social Security Savings system, which were developed from the central fund system Provident fund (CPF) that has existed since 1955.This is to compel people to accumulate savings for their retirement. Likewise, the National Legislative Assembly has considered the draft law related to welfare. In this regard, both Thailand and Singapore recognize that aging society is a significant problem that cannot be solved in a short time. Hence, it is extremely important to prepare to solve problems that will arise in the future.
6) Digital Economy
Singapore is a country with good digital economy foundations. This affects other
economies, including industrial sectors, agriculture, service, financial and banking sectors being progressive and growing quickly. Thailand places great importance on the digital economy as well regarding Prime Minister Chan-o-cha has announced the policy to the National Legislative Assembly on promoting and founding the digital economy to be driven seriously in all five structures:
(1) Development of hard infrastructure which is the development of network systems, communication with frequency antennas and data centers to cover all areas
(2) Development of Infrastructure development, laws, regulations and Soft Infrastructure to build confidence among people in secure transactions with digital technology.
(3) Development of an online service infrastructure which is to build a platform for making transactions and building a national business.
The National Legislative Assembly by the Commission for Mass Communication, Science, Technology and the Information technology has studied digital economy development approaches that are integrated with all five of these aspects. They consider that there must be a national Blueprint of the country in order to connect the work of all 5 areas mentioned above together and also consider the laws that can support the principles of information technology appropriately. In addition, the Commission has established a committee and a group to study and follow the development of the digital economy closely in order to work in accordance with the policy implementation and support the government's digital economy, which will contribute to the sustainable economic growth of the country such as the Digital Economy and Society Preparation Committee, the National Broadband Working Group, Thailand Data Center Working Group, Digital Economic and Social Law Working Group, Lifelong learning Working Group and the Promoting Trade Through Digital Media Working Group.
Singapore emphasized that they focuses on the digital economy and the government works on these matters structurally and they have good cooperation from the private sector on Electronic payment (E-Payment) and Electronic Government (E-Government). They gave the examples that the notification of the transparent report of income and expenditure from private business sector, together with an efficient e-government system, has enabled the government to collect taxes and plan for the use of the budget for the administration and development of the country well. In addition, every ministry of Singapore has a department that connects the digital economy for all citizens so that they are able to access the information easily and equally. Singapore believes that the digital economy will facilitate the development of both macroeconomic and promoting small and medium-sized enterprises in Singapore.
Comments and suggestions from the study visit
1) Visiting and bilateral meetings with the high priority of Singapore is a good opportunity to create a good image and understand the current development of Thailand, to build confidence in Singapore in terms of politics, economy, tourism and to promote cooperation between each other as one of the members of ASEAN who will create a stable and sustainable ASEAN Community.
2) Exchange of opinions on many issues will allow Thailand to gain knowledge and experience in order to be adjusted in the operation of the digital economy and preparation for an ageing society, military cooperation, mass communication and tourism.
3) Exchange of visits between the high levels of both parties will enhance the relationship among the countries to become stronger and more stable.
4) Supporting new digital economy (Digital Economy Promotion) is the establishment of an agency that is responsible and helping emerging businesses from the very beginning of their operations to expanding the market.
5) The creation of a quality society through digital technology is to promote widespread access to networks and information in the Internet system equally.
Keywords Singapore, Digital Economy, Aging Society, Tourism, Military, Mass Communication
Pillar Politics and Security, Economy, Society and Culture
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