Thai PM proclaims successful trip to Australia

BANGKOK, May 29 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra proclaimed her successful trip to Australia Tuesday, as both Bangkok and Canberra have now agreed to cooperate on energy, among several other areas. Yingluck, who was paying an official visit to Australia ongoing from May 26-29, said that both countries have agreed to exchange energy technology and increase values of their agricultural businesses, and that Australia and Thailand have also signed two memoranda of understanding (MoU) on education and training cooperation and on exchange visits of members of parliament (MPs). Yingluck said since Thailand and Australia implemented their bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) eight years ago, Thai exports to Australia have been growing and Thailand has planned to further boost its exports to and investment in Australia and she will discuss the issues at next month's meeting of the joint committee on the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA). However, the Thai premier noted that there have remained many obstacles to Thai exports to the Australian market, including frozen food and even Australia's restriction on language skills of Thai workers and she will also raise the obstacles at next month's meeting of the joint committee on TAFTA. According to the Thai prime minister, her government plans, on the other hand, to apply the successful promotion of Thai food in Australia in other markets, especially the United States and New Zealand, where a number of Thai people work and study and there are several Thai restaurants. Tuesday morning (local time), the Thai prime minister met New South Wales Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sidney, during which she discussed the possibility of official support for activities of Thai nationals, as over 40,000 of them live in New South Wales, referring to the possibility of Thai-language classes in Australia, a student and teacher exchange program to boost bilateral cultural and language education and tourism cooperation between both countries. The Thai premier also invited Australian people to do medical tours in Thailand. (TNA)