Sunday, April 21, 2013

Thai Lower House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont will visit China from April 21 to 28 to boost economic cooperation between the two countries.

Somsak plans to meet Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and participate in an economic forum in Tianjin to promote investment and trade. This is his second official visit to China since his appointment as Speaker of the House of Representatives in August 2011.

The Speaker said in an interview with Xinhua on Friday that the economic forum in Tianjin will help Chinese investors to understand the opportunities the kingdom offers.”My role in China is to encourage more bilateral trade and investment between Thailand and China,” Somsak said.

Somsak said that Thailand is geographically located in the center of the ASEAN region, therefore Thailand will be the best place to offer logistic convenience to serve the ASEAN Economic Community due to come into being by 2015.
Sunday, April 21, 2013

Thailand is gateway to ASEAN which is forecast to be the center of economic growth, he said.

In January the Thai government announced a 2.2 trillion baht ( 76.8 billion US dollars) investment package to boost the country ‘s transport system by 2020, including a massive increase in rail services in Bangkok. The Pheu Thai Party-led government aims to increase connectivity between Bangkok and other provinces with a new high-speed train service, and to improve travel conditions in the capital by adding nearly 400km to the existing electric rail network. Several countries including China, Japan, South Korea and France have expressed interest in bidding for contract. The Thai Transport Ministry proposed to build four lines of high-speed railway.

Somsak said that bidding process must show transparency, however with the required qualifications and skills in constructing bullet trains, he believes China will stand a good chance in bidding for the mega rail project. “China is in a very positive outlook in bidding for the high-speed train project which will be part of the Thai logistics to connect to other ASEAN countries,” he said.

Referring to cultural communication, Somsak said with an additional Chinese language, Thais will have the upper hand to create more business opportunities with China.

Somsak said that the Thai parliament attaches great importance to and looks forward to developing good-neighborly friendship with China and exchanges and cooperation with the National People’s Congress of China. As the situation in Asia and the world at large is in constant change, Thailand expects to further enhance cooperation with China, expand the exchanges between the legislatures, strengthen coordination and collaboration on regional and international issues and promote the development of Thailand-China strategic and cooperative relations.

By Agencies