Thailand boosts trade, investment, tourism with Vietnam

BANGKOK, September 12 (TNA) - Thailand is boosting bilateral trade, investment and tourism with Vietnam, including a project to build a new department store in the neighbouring country, while Bangkok Bank has also obtained a licence to operate for 99 years in Vietnam. Panpimol Suwannapong , Thai Consul-General to Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, said that the Team Thailand in Ho Chi Minh City comprises many agencies, including the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TOT), the Ministry of Commerce's Department of International Trade Promotion and even private firms, and that the team is promoting mutual trade benefits with Vietnam. Panpimol revealed that the Team Thailand now plans to raise the number of tourists between Thailand and Vietnam to one million, from 700,000 in 2011 when most of tourists, or nearly 500,000, were Vietnamese visitors. Presently, the value of bilateral trade between Thailand and Vietnam is about 9 billion US dollars annually, with Vietnam becoming Thailand's 15th most important trading partner and Thailand is Vietnam's 5th most important trading partner. Thai exports to Vietnam now stands around 7 billion dollars annually; while Thai imports from Vietnam amount to some 2 billion dollars yearly. Mongkol Bantornrungroj, deputy board chair and president of Thai Corp International (Vietnam) Co, acknowledged that his company plans to build a new department store in Vietnam, in which most products to be sold will be high-quality Thai goods popular in the Vietnamese market with reasonable prices, suggesting that there are more rooms for Thai investment projects in Vietnam. Tharabodee Suengadichaiwit general manager of Bangkok Bank’s central Vietnam branch, noted that investment has been growing in Vietnam, where there are nearly 90 million consumers and plenty of resources, as well as cheaper wages, and that Bangkok Bank has officially been approved an operating licence in Vietnam for 99 years, the longest period for a foreign bank in Vietnam.(TNA)