DPM:Thai-Japanese business ties strengthen

BANGKOK, December 21 (TNA) - Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak says that business relations between Thailand and Japan have been strengthening in all dimensions. Somkid echoed the strengthening Thai-Japanese business ties while meeting a delegation of visiting Japanese lawmakers and private business operators at Bangkok's Government House on Thursday. Somkid told journalists after the meeting that the visiting Japanese lawmakers from both the Upper House and the Lower House also invited a Thai economic team to visit the business sector of Japanese prefectures to further enhance business relations between Japan and Thailand and asked the Thai government to, on the other hand, take care of Japanese investors in the Thai economy. Somkid noted that the visiting Japanese private business operators include those being members of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce (JCC) in Bangkok. The deputy premier revealed, meanwhile, that the Japanese side has conducted a thorough feasibility study on a bullet Shinkansen-modeled high-speed train project, linking Bangkok with the northern resort Chiang Mai Province. Besides, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has sent a team to conduct a feasibility study on the development of a Smart City in Chachoengsao Province in the Thai East. According to the deputy premier, the development of Thai-Sino high-speed train projects, covering dual-track projects, have been started, in the meantime, paving the way for expanding transport connectivity in the region and a clearer investment direction of mega-projects in Thailand in 2018. (TNA)