PM leaves for visit to Australia

BANGKOK, May 26 (TNA) – Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra left Saturday for a four-day official visit to Australia, aimed at strengthening more than 60 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Yingluck is scheduled to visit Sydney and Canberra during the visit and confer with her Australian counterpart Julia Gillard on ways to boost bilateral trade and investment by 20 per cent in the next five years. Yingluck said before her departure that she would request the Australian government to consider on importing more automobiles, electrical appliances and especially rice from Thailand as many Thai restaurants are now operating in that country. As senior executives of some 60 Thai firms are accompanying her, Yingluck said she would also visit and discuss with owners of Thai restaurants operating there so that more Thai food and raw materials could be exported in a bid to promote the Thai government’s strategy of ‘Thai Kitchen to the World’ as well as lowering their costs. Yingluck said she would also discuss with the Australian officials on the possibility of exchanging education academics and syllabus and also leniency for Thai workers wishing to work there. Two memorandum of understanding including a new Thai-Australian education and the exchange of members of parliament will be signed during the visit, she added. (TNA)