Thai Princess Sirindhorn in city

FT ONLINE

Thailand’s Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn arrived in the capital on Monday on a four-day visit at the invitation of Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali.

The Princess is leading an 11-member high-profile Thai government delegation to visit philanthropic projects she set up in Bangladesh in 2011 under her father, late King Bhumibols’s Royal Chai Pattana Foundation.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam received the Thai Princess at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on her arrival in the afternoon.

Bangladesh Ambassador in Bangkok Saida Muna Tasneem was with Shahriar Alam.

Shahriar who attended her father's funeral had a brief discussion with the Thai Princess at the airport.

During her four-day visit to Bangladesh, the Princess is scheduled to call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and exchange views with Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury and Culture Minister Asaduzzaman Noor and other dignitaries.

The princess is also scheduled to visit various ongoing royal projects in Bangladesh, under the Royal Chaipattana Foundation including public health and sanitation projects for school children, sustainable agriculture projects for farmers in Bangladesh and the Sufficiency Economy Learning Centre at the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation -- all under the ‘Sufficiency Economic Philosophy’ pioneered by her late father King Bhumibol.

During the visit, the Thai Princess is also scheduled to inaugurate a new environmental conservation project taken in collaboration with the Environment and Forest Ministry of Bangladesh, titled “Bangladesh-Thailand Vetiver Grass Development Project to prevent hill erosion in Chattogram” on May 30 at Tiger Pass in Chattogram City.

During her four-day stay in Bangladesh, the Thai Princess is also scheduled to visit the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka, the Ethnological Origins Museum in Chattogram and meet autistic and special children at the Proyash Institute of Special Education in Dhaka Cantonment, meet children and farmers at the Azampur Government Primary School, Uttara, Mariali Government Primary School, Gazipur and Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation in Dhaka.

She will also attend dinner to be hosted by Foreign Minister Ali in her honour.