Thailand, Vietnam to boost trade to US$15b by 2020

HANOI, VIETNAM, November 28 (TNA) - Thailand and Vietnam have agreed to increase bilateral trade to 15 billion US dollars by 2020 and to cooperate in other areas as well, including education, culture, tourism, sports and security. Thai Government Spokesman Dr. Yongyuth Mayalarp told TNA that the agreement was reached on Thursday during a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, between Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his visiting Thai counterpart General Prayut Chan-ocha. The spokesman indicated, stressing on sound diplomatic relations Vietnam and Thailand have enjoyed and will mark the 40th anniversary in 2016, the Vietnamese and Thai prime ministers have made the agreement to increase bilateral trade between Hanoi and Bangkok, especially in agricultural products namely rice and rubber, in order to meet the target. Thanking the Vietnamese government on providing assistance to Thai business operators in Vietnam, the spokesman said, the visiting Thai prime minister proposed to his Vietnamese counterpart that investment promotion agencies of both countries consider setting up a joint working committee to promote and protect investment projects of both nations, as well as ending double taxation for their maximum trade benefit and allowing more Thai commercial banks to set up branches in Vietnam. According to the spokesman, both sides also agreed that a major factor which should efficiently boost development and integration of member countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), including Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand is through the frameworks of the East-West Economic Corridor and the North-West Economic Corridor. Besides, the Thai side proposed that a bus service operating between Thailand's northeastern region and Central Vietnam be operated to help stimulate trade, investment and tourism in the GMS. The spokesman stated that the Vietnamese and Thai leaders also welcomed low-cost airlines to launch new routes and the development of coastal cruises, aimed at helping expand tourism between the two countries. On the occastion, the Vietnamese prime minister also accepted his Thai counterpart's invitation to pay an official visit to Thailand and to co-chair the Third Informal Thai-Vietnamese Cabinet Meeting, to be hosted by Thailand in January 2015, and reiterated that Hanoi is prepared to cooperate with Thailand in several other areas, including education, culture, tourism, sports and security as part of the constructive development for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in which both are members. The Vietnamese and Thai prime ministers also witnessed the signing of three memoranda of understanding (MOUs), including those on the implementation of a Thailand-Vietnam strategic partnership plan, an operational plan for the exchange of Thai-Vietnamese cultures and the establishment of a sister city between Thailand's eastern Chachoengsao Province and Vietnam's Can Tho City. The Thai prime minister is making a two-day official visit to Vietnam, aimed at, like his earlier official trips to Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, familiarising himself with leaders of ASEAN neighbouring countries. Accompanied by his entourage, the Thai prime minister is scheduled to return home on Friday afternoon, concluding his latest official visits to Laos, from November 26-27, and Vietnam, from November 27-28. (TNA)