Thailand will host the first CLMVT Forum

BANGKOK, June 11 (TNA) -- Thailand will organise the CLMVT Forum 2016 at Dusit Thani Hotel in Bangkok on June 16-18 to promote collective growth with neighbouring countries namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said on June 10 that the first CLMVT Forum would be held with the "Towards a Shared Prosperity" concept. As past trade negotiations did not progress significantly among the five countries, CLMVT Forum would be an opportunity for their authorities responsible for trade, investment and tourism policies as well as leading businesspersons, well-known entrepreneurs and academics to exchange views on how to remove trade, investment and business barriers, she said. Businesspersons would be able to air the barriers they had faced so that their root causes would be addressed, Mrs Apiradi said. She hoped that CLMVT could be a new economic engine of Asia and protect the region from global economic fluctuations. On the first two days, the forum will discuss connectivity of finance, capital, trade, investment, tourism, start-ups and digital economies and on June 18 participants will have inspection trips. Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said tourism authorities would discuss the distribution of tourism-related income to minor towns in the countries. Today the five countries have 52 million tourists and 40% of them travelled within the neighbouring countries. She hoped the proportion would exceed 50%. (TNA)