Good afternoon,Mr. James TEO. Director of EFAR, and president of APFF,Mrs. Doris Ching ,

Distinguished guests, committee members of EFAR, .Ladies and Gentlemen

I am Tom Kanathat Chantrsiri As Chief Executive Officer of the Fire and Rescue Association [FARA] of Thailand and Vice President of the APFF. I am very proud to be here at this ceremony to open the new office of EFAR with all of you today.

I recall that in February last year. I had the chance to meet Mr. James Teo directors of EFAR and Mrs. Doris Ching , here in Singapore. On that occasion. I had brought a group of students to inspect safety procedures since safety is a field that I have been working in for more than 20 years.

When I met James I immediately felt that he shared the same ideals and principle in helping mankind and this quickly led to a strong and close relationship and to our two organizations working together intimately and efficiently. At that time, Mr. Forest Lam, President of Pre-Hospital Care Professional Institute [PCPI] showed an interest and a willingness to cooperate a regional organization that would teach and train people who were interested in helping to save lives at the scenes of accidents including Fire Safey and Rescue. This was later established with the name Asia Pre-Hospital and Fire Rescue Federation [APFF] with each country following the same standards and the regulations are being published in three languages, English, Chinese and Thai.Will be the first live saving handbook ever to be published in three languages.

All of us-Mr. James Teo of EFAR in Singapore, Mr.Forest Lam of PCPI , Hong Kong and myself, Tom Kanathat of FARA, Thailand-could not have achieved what  we have without the support of all our respective members and especially all of you here with  and we are working together and learning from each other how to save lives and to further the quality of life.

I would like to ask all of you to offer every encouragement to Mr. Teo and to all of us to help spread the word about life saving procedures and safety for mankind in the hope of a better world for everyone.

Thank You