On April 8th, 2015, from 10.00 to 14.30 hrs., Ambassador Nopadol Gunavibool participated in a meeting of the delegation of the Thailand Management Association (TMA) executives with Dr Roger van Hosse, Managing Director of Food Valley NL, and Mr Charon Zondervan, Programme Leader of Wageningen UR Food & Biabased Research, in Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Upon the invitation for the Ambassador to share experiences of cooperation in connecting the academic sector with the private sectors from the success of the 1st Thailand – Belgium Science, Technology, and Innovation Forum, the Ambassador also joined a visit and a luncheon at “Restaurant of the Future”, a flagship research facility that also serves as a functional cafeteria inside Food Valley NL.
Food Valley NL, situated within the vicinity of Wageningen Universiteit, a public university with a strong focus on agricultural and food sciences, is an industrial cluster zone hosting Research and Development (R&D) offices of more than 140 food and agricultural companies. Operating under the framework of Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Food Valley NL provides R&D and networking services to companies within the industrial cluster zone, most of which are also SME entrepreneurs.
The delegation of Thailand Management Association executives, comprising executives of leading Thai corporations, such as, Mr Tavin Vongvanich, CEO of PTT Exploration and Production PCL, and Mr Teeranun Srihong, President of Kasokorn Bank PCL, were visiting Europe to study the European private sector’s initiative in using science, technology, and innovation for advancing economic competitiveness and how the European model can be adapted for Thailand.
