8th TU-ASEAN Forum held in Bangkok

BANGKOK, May 7 (TNA) - The 8th TU-ASEAN Forum was held in Bangkok on Wednesday, aimed to help prepare both the Thai private and public sectors for the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. The forum, themed “Thailand and Ways to Become a Hub of AEC, Part 2, was organised by the Centres for ASEAN Studies of top five Thai universities, including Thammasat University (TU). The "Part 2" forum, chaired by the Director of Thammasat University's Centre for ASEAN Studies, Assistant Professor Prapat Thepchatri, and attended by relevant public and private agencies, as well as members of the media, was an extension from the first one, which concluded successfully. The main difference between the two forums is that the first focused on the public sector’s points of view, while the second focused on the perspective of the private sector. Dr. Sarasin Viraphol, Executive Vice President of Charoen Pokphand Group (CP), who is a key speaker of the forum, suggested that Thailand expand its food industry overseas to open more rooms of opportunities for the country to grow to become a regional hub for the food industry in the future. Thanet Worasaran, Vice President for Development of the Tourism Council of Thailand, another key speaker at the forum, recommended that Thailand introduce more concrete plans and stricter panels to oversee the tourism industry, in parallel with doing more research projects on tourism in order for the Kingdom's tourism industry to grow steadily, paving the way for Thailand to become a tourism hub in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). (TNA)