The Annual International Training Course on Sustainable Rural Development honored participants from Asia and Africa with an Opening Ceremony held on May 25, 2009. MI Director, Dr. Suchat Katima welcomed the participants to Thailand and introduced Mr. Voravud Tomon, Director of the Human Resource Development Bureau of the Thailand International Development Cooperation Agency (TICA) to deliver his Opening Remarks. 

Mr. Tomon extended his warm welcome to the participants and mentioned that it was a great privilege for him to take part in the opening ceremony of the course. He introduced TICA as the representative of the Royal Thai Government in the promotion of Social Development. He shared the information that TICA organized 39 training courses on various topics such as agriculture, economics, environment, natural resources and other in order to share Thailands experience and technical know-how in supporting professional best practices that create lasting impact. 

In his welcome address, Dr. Katima explained that the course aims not to teach, but to serve as a venue for sharing experiences from the different countries in initiating strategies for sustainable rural development. The course will also share the success of Thailand in creating a sufficiency economy which has transformed the country from a rice-importing country 30 years ago to one of the biggest rice-exporters today. Finally, he expressed his deep appreciation to TICA for their continuing support of MIs activities.