Thai PM meets investors in New Zealand

AUCKLAND, March 22 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is paying an official visit to New Zealand from March 21-24, led Thai business persons to meet their New Zealand counterparts at a luncheon party on Friday (New Zealand's time), aimed to promote their business matching. Yingluck announced at the reception party, attended by over 100 New Zealand business operators and jointly organized by the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) and the ASEAN New Zealand Combined Business Council, that Thailand has targeted to double the value of mutual trade with New Zealand by 2020 and to further enhance bilateral cooperation on tourism and the management of farm products. Yingluck acknowledged that the Thailand-New Zealand Closer Economic Partnership has increased the value of mutual trade between both allied countries by three times and she hopes the value of two-way trade should double by 2020, pointing out that both countries can expand bilateral cooperation on agriculture, product development with technologies, post-harvest management, preservation, food safety and tourism. As over 100,000 New Zealand people visit Thailand annually, the Thai prime minister proposed that both countries exchange expertise in the environmentally- friendly development of tourist destinations, tourist safety and filming to further promote bilateral cooperation on tourism. Meanwhile, Steven Joyce, New Zealand Minister for Economic Development, meanwhile, expressed his appreciation to the strong partnership between Thailand and New Zealand, which has smoothened bilateral cooperation in various areas, saying that both countries are also major food exporters; so, they should exchange knowledge and ideas on product development. Joyce offered that New Zealand shares its expertise in the cultivation and preservation of Kiwifruit and apple with Thailand and proposed that both countries also boost cooperate on education, clean energy and tourism. (TNA)