Laos, Thailand to cooperate in trade, investment promotion
Laos, Thailand to cooperate in trade, investment promotion
Officials from the ministries of industry and commerce of Laos and Thailand plan to create a framework for trade and investment promotion cooperation.
The Lao ministry's Trade and Product Promotion Department and the Thai ministry's International Trade Promotion Department signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation recently at the Thailand Design and Innovation Expo 2013 in Bangkok.
The benefits of this cooperation are expected to be strong teamwork in the promotion of trade and investment by the two countries as well as in the Asean region.
The MOU will involved various areas of cooperation including information exchange on opportunities in business operation and promotion, and seminars and exhibitions to promote and open up more opportunities in trade and investment by the two countries.
It will also encourage international exhibition participation, business matching meetings and visits, and trade promotion with the use of technologies for market expansion, especially building markets using the internet.
Also of significance is that the two parties agree to cooperate on problem solving, especially in addressing challenges that hinder trade and investment.
The two departments are members of the Trade Promotion Organisation as well as actively participating in Asean. They have responsibility for similar areas of work in assisting, facilitating and promoting trade and investment in their two countries.
The two parties will also cooperate in promoting the Asean Economic Community, with Laos gearing up to participate in the regional grouping when it comes into being in 2015.
The trading bloc will create a single market and production base, leading to a highly competitive economic region that is conductive to equitable development, and a region that occupies a significant place within the global economy.
The trade and investment relationship between Laos and Thailand continues to flourish.
Last year, the value of trade between the two countries reached about 37.5 trillion kip (150,000 million Thai baht), Thai Ambassador to Laos Mr Pisanu Chanvitan said at a Lao-Thai trade and investment meeting held in Vientiane in July.
However, that figure does not include the value of the two countries' border trade, where Lao and Thai traders informally purchase the other's products.
The true figure may be about 50 trillion kip (200,000 million Thai baht), Mr Pisanu said.
vientiane times
