Excellency, Mr. Paiboon Wattanasiritham, Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand,
Excellencies, the ASEAN Tourism Ministers,
Excellency, Mr. Francesco Frangialli, Secretary-General of World Tourism Organisation,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour and privilege to be in this gathering of ASEAN Tourism Ministers in conjunction with the annual ASEAN Tourism Forum 2008. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the Government of Thailand for hosting and organising this important event.

This year is a momentous year for ASEAN.  The ASEAN Leaders signed the ASEAN Charter in November 2007 and Member States are now in the process of ratifying the Charter.  This will allow ASEAN to put in place the necessary mechanisms and institutions for a rules-based inter-governmental organisation to realise the ASEAN Community by 2015.  In this respect, Singapore has ratified the Charter and I urge all the other nine ASEAN Member States to expeditiously ratify the Charter. 

Another major ASEAN undertaking for the year will be the blueprints for the ASEAN Political and Security, Economic and Socio-Cultural Communities.  The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint has already been adopted by the ASEAN Leaders last November and work is ongoing to implement the measures in the Blueprint.  Reaching out to the people and explaining the benefits of economic integration will be an integral part of this effort.  We are also working to have the blueprints for the other two Communities ready by the 14th ASEAN Summit later this year in Thailand. 

Free flow of trade in services is an important element of the Single Market and Production Base under the AEC. In this regard, tourism being a part of the services sector will need to remove all  restrictions on trade in services by 2010 and to complete mutual recognition arrangements in accordance with the agreed time schedules in the Roadmap for Integration of Tourism Sector. 

Tourism will remain as one of the major income and employment sources for ASEAN. Last year, ASEAN received more than 61 million international visitor arrivals which is a growth of more than more than 9.8 per cent. This shows that although the region is facing common transnational challenges such as natural disasters, terrorism and avian influenza, the region remains a safe tourist and business destination.

For the future, tourism must attain the criteria of social, ecological, cultural, and economic sustainability to achieve international quality standards. As an intensive-labour sector, tourism could also involve more local communities through cultivating human resources and tourist products thereby helping to reduce poverty. In this regard, ASEAN is happy to work with UN World Tourism Organisation in addressing those challenges.

Finally, I wish the Meeting success and all delegates an enjoyable stay in Bangkok.