11/08/1998

His Excellency Mr. President of the Conference;
Excellency Ministers; Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of the Thai delegation, I first of all have the pleasure to thank the Government of Portuguese Republic and the United Nations for giving me the opportunity to address the first World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth. I also wish to extend my warmest congratulations to you for your excellent preparations for the Conference devoted to youth issues.

I would like to begin by sharing among us that, in Thailand, we have national youth policies which being evolved side by side with the national economic and social development plan for more than two decades and we are presently in the Eighth Plan period starting from 1997 to 2001. Our "youth" according to the Youth Promotion and Co-ordination Act (1978) is defined as people who are under 25 years of age which now covers 48% of total population at about 60 millions.

During the earlier period of development of economic - centred approach, we have enjoyed a healthy economic growth and the, quality of our people at a certain level. However, we have come to realized that early plans also created the undesirable outcome in terms of social and environmental degradation problems. Income disparities still persist.

The more complex and materialistic society, the greater effect on our people, especially children and youth, in adjusting to the new way of life and values of modernization. Thus, the present Eighth National Economic and Social Development Plan has shifted from economic- centred approach to human centred development and this is also the first national development plan that comes from all segments of society including youth themselves to contribute their views during the drafting process. The plan itself emphasizes human potential building and people's participation in the development process and also extending services to reach the disadvantaged population and improving quality of services. To ensure the well-being of all children, the Eighth Plan has given priority to child protection and their participation in development process.

I also have the pleasure to note that the principles of our Eighth National Children and Youth Development Plan are also in line with those of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and of our new Constitution which has just been promulgated since last year in terms of giving first priority efforts and maximising all available resources for the benefit of our younger generation's best condition of living in order to develop their full potential.

To specifically touch on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Thai policies and legislation facilitate the implementation and protection of child rights as stipulated in the Convention. Child rights is a new concept that has made Thai people aware of the needs of the child as his or her due - needs that must be fulfilled because it is the child's inherent right and not because he or she is a helpless being.

In regards to the implementation of priorities of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, higher education is focussed in the Thai National Education Act and it is aimed at extending the level of basic education from 6 to 9 years and to 12 years in conformity with the Thai Constitution,

Besides, in order to develop full potential of Thai youth to be competent in the labour market, special measures on learning process are developed to enable the students to have adequate knowledge and basic skills for employment including the strengthening of vocational education in school system. There are also the provisions of short-course of vocational training for out-of-school youth. The new Labour Protection Act was just launched and will enter in to force on 19 August this year raising the minimum legal employment age from 13 to 15 years and requiring the employers to report their hire of employees aged below 18 years to labour inspectors within 15 days of employment.

In view of health, efforts have been made by the Government to extend health services to cover all groups of people throughout the country. In regards to HIV/AIDS problem with children and youth, the National Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Alleviation of HIV and AIDS has been set up with eight main strategies such as psycho-social development enabling persons living with HIV/AIDS to lead normal life within society. The more substantial preventive measure to be noted here is to provide people especially younger generation the reproductive health education in order to give them the exact knowledge including with how to protect them selves from being victimized.

However, I have to admit that the impact of the current economic downturn contributed, in one way or another, to the plight of our children and youth. Job losses, reduction in household income and subsequent indebtedness; resulting in the higher figures of school drop-out since last year. The Thai Government has adopted short ten interventions under the social investment project to meet the urgent needs of the affected and the disadvantaged. It is hoped that the social investment project together with the existing programmes under the Eighth National Plan, could alleviate the emerging problems and help Thai society to move through the current crisis towards sustainable development.

At this juncture, I would like to reaffirm that cooperation on youth issues in the global community cannot be developed effectively without the active participation of civil society especially the young people themselves. Thailand also herself looks forward to community cooperation and the civil society with youth representatives in all stages of national development process.

Thank you for your kind attention.