Prior to the 13th ASEAN Summit commenced in Singapore, Thailand's Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont chaired the 3rd Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Summit on 19 November 2007. The summit was also attended by Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia, and Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia.


In his opening statement, Prime Minister Surayud welcomed the collective commitment of IMT-GT members towards prosperity and sustainable development in this sub-region as reflected by the progress achieved in implementing several IMT-GT programmes and projects during the first year of the IMT-GT Roadmap 2007-2011. The Prime Minister also highlighted Thailand's efforts regarding the development of the southern border provinces, which are part of the IMT-GT area, including the Southern Region Development Strategy, which the National Economic and Social Development Board is preparing and which will be proposed to the incoming government next year for implementation.

He also underscored the importance of bilateral cooperation between IMT-GT members to advance the objectives of the IMT-GT and the need to invest in transportation infrastructure to improve land, sea and air connectivity in the sub-region's logistics networks, as well as to reduce barriers to the flows of goods, services and people, in order to make IMT-GT an attractive investment hub for the region, which would in turn advance ASEAN's integration.

Noting the expansion of the IMT-GT area to include additional provinces in Thailand, with increasing potential to take advantage of each member country's respective strengths, the Prime Minister urged IMT-GT members to look for more ways to utilize their strengths for the mutual benefit of the sub-region, citing as examples cooperation in energy security, given the sub-region's energy resources such as oil, natural gas and alternative energy, and cooperation to increase the competitiveness and security of food, agricultural and forest products.

Prime Minister Surayud also took the opportunity to reaffirm that while Thailand will have a new government following the general election on December 23, the Kingdom's commitment to cooperation under the framework of the IMT-GT would remain unchanged and encouraged both the Indonesian and Malaysian leaders to continue to support and advance cooperation under the IMT-GT framework.



In presenting the Summary Report of the IMT-GT Ministers to the Leaders, Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram highlighted the salient points of the three main parts of the report, namely, review of the key directives of the Second IMT-GT Summit held in Cebu in January 2007, review of the progress of implementation of the IMT-GT Roadmap 2007-2011, which the leaders endorsed at their second Summit, in all six core areas, and recommendations for the Leaders' approval. The six core areas of cooperation are infrastructure development and transportation, trade and investment, tourism cooperation, Halal products and services, human resources development (HRD), and agriculture, agro-industry and environment.

Important and concrete progress under IMT-GT include the construction of the new bridge across the Golok River at Buketa and Bukit Bunga, which is expected to be completed in December to mark the 50th anniversary of Thailand-Malaysia diplomatic relations; preparations to launch the Visit IMT-GT Year 2008 in Songkhla, Thailand; and the building of new IMT-GT plazas in all three countries, which are expected to be opened by next year.

Key recommendations which was endorsed by the IMT-GT leaders at this meeting, include:

1. The extension of IMT-GT area of coverage to include six additional provinces in southern Thailand namely, Phuket, Phang-nga, Krabi, Ranong, Chumphon, and Surat Thani;
   
   
2. An official declaration of the Visit IMT-GT Year 2008 which will be officially launched in Hat Yai, Songkhla province, Thailand in January 2008;
   
   
3. An expedition of the fully operational center for IMT-GT Sub-regional Cooperation (CIMT), located in the State of Selangor, Malaysia, by 2008;
   
   
4. A request to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide technical support in order to prepare action plans to implement the five connectivity corridors with clearly defined priority projects and their estimate costs (The five corridors are the Songkhla-Penang-Medan Economic Corridor, the Strait of Melaka Economic Corridor, the Banda Aceh-Medan-Dumai-Palembang Economic Corridor, and the Melaka-Dumai Economic Corridor, and the newly initiated Ranong-Phuket-Aceh Economic Corridor, which link the new areas with the existing areas of IMT-GT);
   
   
5. A request to the ADB to discuss with the Joint Business Council (JBC) the possibility of increasing private sector access to sources of funding towards the implementation of IMT-GT projects; and
   
   
6. A request to the six IMT-GT working groups to be pro-active on issues of importance including: cooperation on alternative and renewable energy; reduction of logistic costs along the connectivity corridors; the establishment of special border zones; cooperation on Halal standard and certification as well as joint marketing; cooperation on HRD, labor movement and Mutual Recognition Arrangement on labor certification and standard; cooperation on fisheries, livestock, as well as horticulture and related agro-business.