Thai entrepreneurs urged to expand businesses in CLMV

BANGKOK, April 5 (TNA) - Thai business operators have been urged to expand their trade and investment in neighboring Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam, known as the CLMV group, in which there are ample resources to serve their growing economies. Speaking at a seminar on "Uplift CLMV Experience : Opening the Door to CLMV Towards More ASEAN Free Trade World", organized in Bangkok on April 4 by the Ministry of Commerce's Department of Trade Negotiations and the Board of Trade of Thailand (BTT), BTT Deputy Chairman Niyom Viyaratpanich suggested that Thai business operators not miss expanding trade and investment opportunities in the CLMV group. Niyom pointed out that annual bilateral trade between Thailand and the CLMV group has been considerably growing to more than 1 trillion baht totally so far. Department of Trade Negotiations Deputy Director-General Siripan Likhitwiwat stressed, meanwhile, that annual cross-border trade between Thailand and the CLMV group has reached about 560 billion baht totally so far, out of their overall two-way trade of about 1.1 trillion baht yearly. According to the senior Thai official, there are ample major resources in the CLMV group, including labor, suitable for labor-intensive industrial plants for the production of clothes, footware and processed-food. (TNA)