PM to reiterate Thailand’s potential as ASEAN business hub

BANGKOK, July 13 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at a dinner reception of ASEAN and US business operators in Cambodia's Siem Reap Province Friday evening, during which she will reiterate Thailand's potential to become a business hub of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), especially in regional tranportation and investment networks. Telling journalists in Bangkok of Yingluck's schedule, Thai Government Spokeswoman Sansanee Nakpong acknowledged that the prime minister will take the opportunity to build up confidence in the Thai economy among the foreign business operators and to stress on Thailand’s potential as the regional business hub, indicating the Kingdom's abundant resources, including food, energy and human capital, as well as information technology (IT) and other technical supports from trading partners, namely the United States. Sansanee said that the Thai premier will also show her vision on the development of ASEAN networks in all areas toward the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), with a combined high potential single market of some 600 consumers and strengthened cooperation with the 10-member bloc's dialogue partners, by 2015. The Thai prime minister, who is paying a one-day visit to Cambodia to attend the US-ASEAN business seminar in the Cambodian Siem Reap Province as invited by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is also scheduled to meet Myanmar President Thein Sein, her Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen and the US Secretary of State to discuss bilateral relations with the allied economies before the US-ASEAN business dinner gathering. Premier Yingluck will then return to Bangkok late Friday night.(TNA)