On 2 November 2018, at meeting room 9 on the 2nd floor of the Golden Jubilee Administration and Information Center at Kasetsart University, Dr. Chongrak WACHRINRAT, Acting President of Kasetsart University along with the university administrators including Associate Professor Dr. Siree CHAISERI, Vice President for Research; Associate Professor Dr. Nuchanata MUNGKUNG, Vice president for Finance Associate Professor; Dr. Chamaipak TAYJASANANT, Acting Assistant to the President and Acting Director of the International Affairs Division; Associate Professor Dr. Anuvat JANGCHUD, Dean of Faculty of Agro-Industry; and associated faculty members gave a warm welcome to H.E. Mr. Kees Pieter RADE, Ambassador of the Netherlands to the Kingdom of Thailand along with followers; on occasion of meeting the university administrators and discuss the cooperation with Kasetsart University. This courtesy visit is to introduce H.E. Mr. Kees Pieter Rade as the new Dutch Ambassador to Kasetsart University, Bangkok. Apart from getting to know each other, the courtesy visit also aims to strengthen collaboration with The Netherlands and Kasetsart University in agriculture, livestock and agro-food industry.

  Dr. Chongrak WACHRINRAT gave a welcoming remarks and overview information about Kasetsart University as the biggest university in term of students and a pioneer agricultural university in Thailand, and also depicted the expertise of Netherland in agricultural related field of study. Simultaneously, H.E. Mr. Kees Pieter Rade also gave a speech about the strong relationship between Netherland and Thailand in term of joint research and collaboration, and mention the circular policy of Netherland in agricultural sector that emphasize on the management of climate change and the usage of natural resources in the future.

  Moreover, the meeting also discussed the strong collaboration between Kasetsart University and universities in the Netherlands, especially the Wageningen University and the Research Center (UR) that have been signed in the Memorandum of Understanding with Kasetsart University and have established the networking cooperation consecutively. Kasetsart University has been highly recognized as a leading R&D institute of Thailand in agriculture and longtime alliance with The Netherlands especially in the field of agriculture, livestock, food and veterinary. The recent Thai-Dutch Agriculture and Food Forum 2018 at Kasetsart University in March 28th, 2018 is one of the outstanding success chapters on Thai – Dutch agro-food collaboration for innovative sustainable food value chain.

  In addition, The Netherlands Embassy is planning to organize The Netherlands – Thai Sustainable Livestock Value Chain Conference 2019 in Bangkok. Therefore, The Netherlands Embassy would like to invite Kasetsart University to be co-organizer, which Kasetsart University assigns Assistant Professor Dr. Panwadee SOPANNARATH, Head of the Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture as coordinator for this upcoming event.

  In summary, The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands looks forward to seeing closer ties between institutions of higher learning of the two countries and willing to cooperate as well as support the University in various fields.