Thai PM to visit China next week

BANGKOK, December 20 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha will pay a two-day official visit to China from December 22-23, during which four agreements between Bangkok and Bejing will be inked. Government Spokesman Yongyuth Mayalarp told journalists that the Thai prime minister and his entourage, including his wife, Naraporn Chan-ocha, and high-ranking officials, will leave Bangkok for Beijing early next Monday. Soon after his arrival in the Chinese capital, the spokesman said, the Thai premier is scheduled to confer with his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang and to then witness the signing of four agreements. According to the spokesman, the four accords are a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on allowing a debt settlement in the form of China’s yuan currency, an extension of existing agreement on the exchange of yuan and the Thai baht, an MOU on academic cooperation on water resources and irrigation and an agreement on cooperation between the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the People’s Bank of China. During his upcoming trip to China, the second one after he attended the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit and related forums in Beijing last month, the Thai prime minister also plans to take a high-speed train ride from Beijing to Tianjin and to pay a courtesy call on Chinese President Xi Jinping. China and Thailand signed two MOUs on China's construction of Thailand’s first dual rail tracks linking with those from China, through Laos, and purchase of Thai farm products in Bangkok on December 19. (TNA)