BANGKOK, Oct. 9 — Thailand has finished preparing for next week’s annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said on Friday during a press tour of the venue.
The meetings run from Oct. 12 to 18 at Bangkok’s Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, where more than 15,000 policymakers, economists, officials, business executives, and journalists from 191 countries and regions will gather to discuss the course of the global economy.
The government will use the gathering to pitch Thailand as a Southeast Asian hub for foreign direct investment, Ekniti said, adding that the country will promote its digital infrastructure, clean energy, and investment incentives, with a focus on artificial intelligence and electric vehicles.
Organizers are coordinating security with the Royal Thai Police. The venue is divided into layered security zones with 17 X-ray checkpoints and 19 walk-through gates, plus round-the-clock CCTV monitoring. Security staff are posted 24 hours a day at all 21 official delegate hotels, organizers said.
Vinit Visessuvanapoom, director-general of the ministry’s Fiscal Policy Office, said the event is being run as a “green meeting.” More than 320 electric vehicles will carry delegates, a move organizers expect will cut emissions by more than 95.8 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Moreover, food waste will be turned into compost, the meetings will be paperless, and single-use plastics will be cut back in catering, Vinit said.
(Namibia Daily News/Xinhua)
