Your Excellency Genaral (Retd.) Prayut Chan-o-cha Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand
Your Majesties ,Your Highnesses and Excellencies
Distinguished Delegates
Ladies and gentlemen

From the land of Happiness to the land of Smiles, I bring to you the greetings and prayers of His Majesty the King and the people of Bhutan for the success of the ADC summit.

With Thailand at the helm of affairs, we are confident that this summit will bring the Asian countries together in a sprit of friendship and meaningful cooperation with a common purpose for better economic and social order in the Asian region.

I would also like to congratulate and extend our cooperation to United Arab Emirates on assuming the Chair of ACD.

I welcome the accession Turkey and Nepal, our friend and neighbor as the member state of the ACD.

Mr. Chairman

When economic reigning supreme and dictating and defining relations among nation, there is an urgent need to rethink development approaches in the context of globalization to generate value and maximize the happiness for our people in sustainable basis. In this connection, Bhutan welcomes and support the Vision 2030, the Bangkok declaration and the Blueprint 2017 to 2021 proposed by Thailand. The Blueprint document will enable the ACD to translate our vision into tangible action through the implementation of a set of strategies and activities to meet the desired collective objectives.

We also welcome the prime movers and co-prime movers of the 6 pillars of cooperation. I am happy to report that Bhutan has volunteered to be a co-prime movers along with Thailand for the 6 Pillars of Cooperation- Promoting Approaches to Inclusive and sustainable Development.

Bhutan would like to share its experience on the concept of Gross National Happiness or GNH, which is a similar approach to Thailand’s own concept of “sufficiency economy philosophy ” (SEP), as one of the homegrown approaches to inclusive and sustainable development. It is through the exchange and sharing of such ideas and experiences, that GNH and SEP could be adapted and incorporated to suit one’s own specific and changing needs.

Mr. Chairman

Let me conclude by reiterating Bhutan’s commitment to pursue the shared aspiration and interests of ACD community. Given the emerging global challenges and the need for unity, inclusiveness and collective effort to address them, the theme of this year’s Summit. “One Asia, Diverse Strength” is a fitting and all-encompassing call in the realization of “One Asia ” in “The Asian Century” for the benefit of all our people.

Tashi Delek.