Mr. Surapong Tovichakchaikul, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, is scheduled to pay the first official visit to Singapore from 23 - 25 January 2013 to attend the Eleventh Coordinating Meeting of the Thailand-Singapore Civil Service Exchange Programme (CSEP) at Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore.

During this official visit, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand will have a bilateral meeting with Mr. K Shanmugam, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore, and co-officiate the opening ceremony of the Eleventh CSEP Meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore on 24 January 2013. After the opening ceremony, the Minister for Foreign Affairs  of Singapore will host a luncheon in honour of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and the Thai CSEP delegates.

The theme of the Eleventh CSEP is “Good Governance in an Increasingly Complex World”.  This theme was transpired from the discussion between the Prime Ministers of Thailand and Singapore on the occasion of the official visit  to Singapore of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand, on 8 December 2011, where both sides agreed to enhance cooperation and exchange best practices on good governance .

CSEP was established in 1998 to promote closer interaction, exchange of best practices, and cooperation among senior officials of civil service agencies of Thailand and Singapore. CSEP is one of the four pillars under the Thailand-Singapore cooperative framework to enhance strategic partnership between the two countries (Singapore-Thailand Enhanced Partnership - STEP). The CSEP coordinating meeting is held annually by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore, alternately in Thailand and Singapore. Thailand hosted the Tenth CSEP from 19 - 20 January 2011 in Bangkok. (No meeting was convened in 2012.)

As for the bilateral meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs will discuss with his counterpart how to further promote bilateral cooperation, in such areas as trade and investment, education and labour, as well as their cooperation in ASEAN and other regional frameworks.