The newly appointed Country Director of GIZ Thailand and Malaysia, Mr. Reinhold Elges paid a courtesy call on Mr. Athapol Charoenshunsa, Director General of Pollution Control Department (PCD) on 5 November 2020 at PCD Building. The courtesy call was to introduce the new Country Director as well as projects under the cooperation framework to PCD and to discuss potential collaboration on bilateral and regional projects.

Mr. Athapol welcomed the visitors and shared PCD’s vision, explaining that “PCD is also in charge of environmental and is making every effort to sustain good environmental protection and manage national resources in an effective way, as well as ensuring that the country can mitigate the impacts of climate change.”

Mr. Reinhold congratulated the Director-General on his recent appointment, which came into effect in October 2020, and underscored the commitment to  Thai-German Cooperation. “In Thailand that cooperation has been ongoing for 60 years. In the beginning, the focus was on industrial development but over the last 10-15 years, it has shifted to climate change and environment. Thailand is the main strategic partner of the international climate initiative (IKI) and climate protection funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU).”  

Opportunities for PCD and GIZ collaboration in the future include municipal solid waste management, air pollution and marine litter projects under the umbrella of regional cooperation.

At the end of the visit, GIZ invited PCD to define its priorities and assured the Director-General of GIZ’s support both in exploring priorities and in mobilising GIZ expertise to put these into practice through bilateral and regional cooperation.

Ms. Pornpimon Chareonsong, Director, Waste and Hazardous Substances Management Division, Mr. Phunsak Theramongkol, Director, Water Quality Management Division and Mr. Janejob Suksod, Director, Environmental Analysis Center also attended the meeting. Mr. Elges was accompanied by Mr. Alvaro Zurita, Project Director of EU-Marine Litter Project, Mr. Kai Hofmann, Project Director of Sustainable Consumption and Production Project, Mr. Werner Kossmann, Project Director of Thai-German Climate Programme – Waste Component and team members from GIZ.