On 22 February 2022, Dr.Kanit Sangsubhan, the Secretary General of the Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand (EECO) and Assoc. Prof. Dr.Chayaporn Wattanasiri, the President of Mae Fah Luang University signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in human resource development in education between the Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand and Mae Fah Luang University.
The President of Mae Fah Luang University expressed that under this MoU, the university will apply expertise in approaches, methodologies and techniques for teaching English and Chinese languages to improve the quality of teachers in the economic corridor. In the first phase, the Train The Trainer course will be implemented to develop knowledge and skills of English language teachers so that they can then teach others effectively. Nowadays, EECO and MFU jointly hold ‘EEC Exemplary Foreign Language Education (English – Chinese language)’ for 35 English language teachers and Chinese language teachers and 150 students from eight schools in Rayong and Chonburi province. In addition, this project is expected to spread to other 30 and 60 schools in the economic corridor within 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Dr.Kanit Sangsubhan stated that the Eastern Economic Corridor is an important policy of the government to advance economic development, escape the middle-income trap and turn Thailand into a developed country. The EEC’s 12 targeted industries (S-curve industries) are the mechanism that will drive the Thai economy with future technology. The 12 targeted industries include new-generation automotive; intelligent electronics; automation and robotics; digital; advanced agriculture and biotechnology; food for the future; medical and comprehensive healthcare; high-value and medical tourism; logistics and aviation; biofuels and biochemical; defense; and education and human resource development. Dr. Sangsubhan added that more than 470,000 new workers will be needed in the next five years to work in the Eastern Economic Corridor industries. Therefore, it is necessary to produce more skilled labourers to meet the demand across the EEC.
Altogether, this MoU will indeed promote the development of human resources in the EEC by helping schools and foreign language teachers to improve language teaching efficiency. The effective education will help propel manpower production to support the critical needs of industries in the area.
