On September 10, 2019, the 6th Joint Committee Meeting of Thailand-China on Marine Cooperation was held in Bangkok, Thailand. Mr. Wijam Simachaya, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand, and Mr. Wang Qian, Deputy Director of the International Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the PRC, jointly hosted the meeting. During the meeting, the mobile APP of Thailand Marine Environment Forecast System, jointly developed by the First Institute of Oceanography of the Ministry of Natural Resources (FIO, MNR) and the Phuket Marine Biological Center, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand, was officially released to the public. 

The two governments attach great importance to China-Thailand cooperation in marine science and technology. On December 22, 2011, the former Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and the former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand witnessed the signing of the Memorandum on Maritime Cooperation Between the State Oceanic Administration of China and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Kingdom of Thailand in Bangkok, Thailand. Since then, the both sides had focused on the maritime cooperation on the construction of Thailand marine environment forecast system and disaster reduction and prevention system, opening a new chapter of bilateral maritime cooperation. On April 17, 2012, the maritime cooperation was included in the Joint Statement on Establishing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the People's Republic of China and the Kingdom of Thailand. The former Premier Wen Jiabao and the former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand witnessed the signing of the Arrangement on Establishing Thailand-China Joint Laboratory for Climate and Marine Ecosystem Between the State Oceanic Administration of China and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Kingdom of Thailand in Beijing. On October 11, 2013, Premier Li Keqiang and the former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand witnessed the signing of the Five-year Plan for Maritime Cooperation Between the State Oceanic Administration of China and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Kingdom of Thailand (2014-2018) by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand in Bangkok, Thailand. In October 2013, the two countries issued the Long-term Program on the Development of China-Thailand Relations, and clearly pointed out that they supported the establishment of marine environment monitoring and forecast systems in the South China Sea and Andaman Sea.

In October 2013, Premier Li Keqiang proposed to set the China-ASEAN Cooperation Fund at the 16th China-ASEAN Summit, and also announced the launch of 17 projects including the Southeast Asia Marine Environment Forecast and Disaster Warning System. The first batch of Thailand marine environment forecast and disaster reduction and prevention system was launched. After unremitting efforts, based on the wave-induced non-breaking turbulence, and the world's first wave-tide-circulating current coupling numerical mode developed originally by China, our marine environment forecast ability has been greatly improved. In July 2015, the Chinese and Thai governments officially launched the Thailand Marine Environment Forecast System, and put it into operation in Thailand. After the approval of the MNR, the FIO provided timely and accurate forecast in the sunken ship search and rescue happened on July 5, 2018 in Thailand on the basis of this system. It has also been applied by the Thai government in the field search and rescue, and has been highly recognized. The Thai side expressed their sincere gratitude to the Chinese side at this meeting. China and Thailand jointly developed the mobile APP for the convenience of end users.

This mobile APP jointly developed by the two sides under the support of the China-ASEAN Cooperation Fund can realize the visualization of the numerical prediction on marine environment such as high-resolution wind field, sea temperature, current and wave in Thailand and its surrounding waters in the next 120 hours (5 days) on the mobile platform. Vectors adopt flowline format and invariants are filled color with contours. It supports the loading and display of prediction products based on real marine and land environment. It can realize the visualization functions such as dynamic zooming and roaming of prediction products, and can automatically identify and call corresponding data map and property display with different resolutions according to different scales, with the response time of dynamic zooming less than 2 seconds. It can provide users with marine environment information of any location of interest at any time.

The APP interface is in both English and Thai language to facilitate the usage by Thai users. The release of this mobile APP will push the marine environment forecast product to the public in Thailand more quickly so as to improve their rapid emergency response to marine environment disasters and emergencies such as storm surge, oil spills, and search and rescue in Thailand. It is for the first time that the end users in Southeast Asia can directly inquire about the marine environment forecast information by mobile phone. 

Group photo of the participants at the 6th Joint Committee Meeting of Thailand-China on Marine Cooperation