Japan, Thailand cooperate on medical equipment development

BANGKOK, June 6 (TNA) - Japan's Fukushima Prefecture and the Thai government, through the Ministry of Industry, will cooperate on the comprehensive development of the medical industry and medical equipment through clusters of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of both sides. Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, who oversees economic affairs, and Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana jointly witnessed the signing of an agreement on the cooperation between the Thai Ministry of Industry's Department of Industry Promotion and Japan's northeastern Fukushima Prefecture in Tokyo on June 5. The visiting Thai deputy prime minister and industry minister also witnessed the signing of another agreement between Fukushima's center for the development of medical equipment and the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) on jointly develop the high technological medical equipment industry through joint investment projects. The Thai government has targeted to have some joint Japanese-Thai medical equipment SMEs opened in the country's Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Project by early next year. Meanwhile, the Thai deputy prime minister also met with executives of Japan-based Hitachi Ltd to discuss cooperation on the development of components of rail tracks and the development of a rail route for electric train linking Ayutthaya Province in central Thailand, where there are a number of Japanese manufacturing plants, with the Map Ta Phut Deep Seaport in eastern Thailand, apart from a Japanese project on the development of a rail route for the electric train linking Bangkok with the country's northern resort Chiang Mai Province. (TNA)