PM:Thailand will speed up physical connectivity with Cambodia

BANGKOK, December 26 (TNA) - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says that Thailand is ready to speed up physical cross-border connectivity with Cambodia, including roads, railway tracks, bridges and border crossings, and to work out regulations and administration to facilitate border crossing. Yingluck publicly announced the moves after Thailand and Cambodia agreed at the 8th Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission (JC), which was concluded in Bangkok on Wednesday following two-day discussions, that the two neighbouring countries will jointly promote transportation connectivity and cooperation on trade and tourism. Yingluck acknowledged that the cross-border connectivity projects will significantly promote trade and tourism between Thailand and Cambodia and even among countries in the region. According to the prime minister, both sides also agreed at the 8th Thai-Cambodian JC Meeting to implement the single visa under the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) framework, in which Thailand and Cambodia become a single tourist destination for non-visa ASEAN travellers as of December 27, 2012. Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Namhong, who co-chaired the 8th Thai-Cambodian JC Meeting with his Thai counterpart Surapong Tovichakchaikul and paid a courtesy call on the Thai prime minister at Government House after the meeting, said, meanwhile, that the two-day meeting was very successful, resulting from good bilateral relations. According to the visiting Cambodian deputy premier, the number of tourists in both countries has soared and the value of bilateral trade has risen by over 2 billion US dollars so far this year and both sides have now agreed to find ways to steadily have their two-way trade increased by at least 30 per cent annually. (TNA)