Opportunities as Mideast embarks on "Look East" policy

Vitavas Srivihok, deputy permanent secretary for the Foreign Ministry, said yesterday that the Middle East had not received enough interest from the business community in Thailand, which considers it far away and riddled with unrest.

"However, I would like to say here that the Middle East is a market with good potential and tremendous business opportunities. It is also a prominent gateway to West Africa," he said.

He was speaking at a seminar on "The Opening of the Middle East Market and Integrated Strategy in Moving the Thai Economy" held yesterday by the Thailand Business Council Dubai and the Northern Emirates of UAE in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry.

The Middle East is a market with 400 million people and strong financial stability.

As members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, many major countries in the Middle East have allocated huge investments to developing major infrastructure and world-class facilities to attract major trade and sports events from around the world, he said.

For example, Dubai will host the World Expo in 2020 and Qatar the Fifa World Cup in 2022.

The region has launched the strategic "Look East" policy to explore investment and business opportunities in East Asian countries. It is also in line with the Thai government’s "Look West" strategy, he said.

Warawudh Chuwiruch, Thai ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, said the UAE was a country with 9 million people, of whom fewer than a million are real citizens. About 2.6 million are Indians and 1.5 million to 1.6 million are Pakistanis.

The UAE is a country with many nationalities, so its market is wide open to a variety of goods and services, including both halal and non-halal foods.

Its vision is to become the world’s wealthiest country and the world’s transport and logistics hub by 2021. Thailand’s private sector should go along with such development, especially in infrastructure and logistics facilities, he said.

Thai products and services with potential are restaurants, spas and wellness centres, agricultural products, jewellery, auto parts and air-conditioners.

Piroon Laismit, the Thai ambassador to Qatar, said that country had been open to the world for only about 10 years.

It has 2.3 million people of whom only 300,000 are natives. Its gross domestic product is expected to grow by 7.3 per cent to US$227 billion this year.

The country’s foreign reserves reached $41.03 billion as of April and its sovereign wealth fund $256 billion.

"Qatar is trying to push itself forward to become a hosting centre for the world’s sports activities. The country will host the Fifa World Cup in 2022.

"It has spent a lot of money on developing infrastructure and major sport complexes and facilities, which are also major driving forces to stimulate Qatar’s internal economy.

"However, all construction work as well as management of those world-class events has been outsourced," he said.

Such development would create great demand for restaurants and hotels from outside, including Thailand, Piroon said.

"Qatar will invest a lot of money on several infrastructure projects to be in line with its 2030 vision, which will focus on the development of four major pillars, which are education, social, environmental and economic," he said.

The country will invest or has invested $20 billion on roads, $25 billion on electric trains, $15.5 billion on a finished airport, $4 billion on a sports complex, $8 billion on a deep-sea port to be completed by next year and $20 billion on a subway.

Rasmee Chittham, Thai ambassador to Iran, said that with a population of 80 million, that country has enjoyed advanced sciences and technology.

It is also a gateway to Central Asia, a group of independent states, as well as Iraq. Iran has also maintained relations with Thailand for more than 400 years.

"Iran is in the process of having sanctions lifted. We anticipate huge trade and business opportunities within the country. The Iranian government has an open-door policy and a policy to explore investment and business opportunities in the East," he said.

The Thai government should group the country’s enterprises, especially small and medium-sized businesses, into clusters and move them together to cash in on trade and investment opportunities in Iran.

The government should also act as their facilitator for such expansion abroad, Rasmee said.