Thai business operators urged to expand trade, investment with India

BANGKOK, November 22 (TNA) - The Ministry of Commerce has suggested that Thai business operators expand their trade and investment with India, where the domestic economy has grown as high as 7-8 per cent on average annually for several years. Adul Chotinisakorn, Deputy Director-General of the ministry's Department of Foreign Trade, told a business seminar in Bangkok on November 21, in which more than 1,300 business operators participated, that India's economic prospect remains sound, cushioned by its steadily high gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 7-8 per cent over the past several years, while China's GDP growth rate has begun to be stable. Adul said it should be a good opportunity for Thai business operators now to expand their trade and investment with India, pointing out that Thai products are popular in the immense Indian market. Besides, the Thailand-India Free Trade Area (FTA) and the ASEAN-India FTA have boosted bilateral trade between Bangkok and New Delhi to 8 billion US dollars on average yearly so far, with Thai exports to India having exceeded 5 billion US dollars, resulting in Thailand's gaining trade surplus with India, while two-way trade between Thailand and India is expected to further expand to reach 8.5 billion US dollars in 2017, an over 10 per cent year-on-year growth. The senior official noted that India has also launched a new campaign, themed “Make in India”, which emphasizes on increasing employment and developing workers' skills in 25 domestic industrial sectors, including automobile, chemical, information technology (IT) and processing food industries, where international investors can also export their products to other neighboring countries in South Asia namely Bangladesh and Pakistan with the zero tariff rate. The senior official stressed that the factors he mentioned should be advantages for Thai business operators to expand their trade and investment with India, after the high potential Indian economy has been invested by only some large-scaled Thai corporates so far. Meanwhile, Surat Horachaikul, Director of the Indian Study Center of Bangkok-based Chulalongkorn University, acknowledged that proper information on any economy by Thai people who have general knowledge and positive attitude can support their right decisions on trade and investment in a potential economy, citing the Indian economy as a good example. (TNA)