Hong Kong invited to invest in Thailand's EEC

HONG KONG, June 29 (TNA) Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak has invited business operators and institutions in Hong Kong to expand their investment projects in Thailand, including Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Cyberport, a business complex called itself a "creative digital community" in the business island. While paying a three-day visit to Hong Kong, scheduled for June 26-29, to participate in the Belt and Road Summit 2018, Somkid told TNA on June 28 that he took the opportunity to invite Hong Kong and other foreign business operators to expand their investment in targeted sectors in Thailand, especially in the government-supported Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). Somkid said he initially discussed the possibility of a cooperation plan between the Hong Kong and the Thai sides on the opening of a campus of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Thailand's EEC, as the university has already worked together with Bangkok-based Chulalongkorn University and has been ranked the 37th position by the QS world university ranking 2019. Besides, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has been famous for its outstanding academic and research programs in the areas of science and technology, engineering, business administration, social science and humanities. According to the Thai deputy premier, he also visited Cyberport, owned by the Hong Kong government as a central mechanism for promoting and developing digital industries and technologies to drive forward the Hong Kong economy. The Thai deputy prime minister acknowledged that the Cyberport has also become a leading center in Asia for the development of business startups and the digital ecological system beneficial for the emerging digital and financial technology (FinTech) startups, as a vast area of 120,000 square feet, out of its total area of over one million square feet, has been arranged as a "smart space" to cater for innovative businesses in Hong Kong and those relocating from China and other foreign economies. The Thai deputy prime minister, meanwhile, witnessed the signing of business agreements between five private Thai and Hong Kong firms and a cooperation agreement between Thailand's Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Department of Industrial Promotion and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the international marketing arm for Hong Kong-based manufacturers, traders and service providers. (TNA)