Yingluck leaves on official visit to Bejing
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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra left Bangkok on Tuesday for a three-day official visit to China that aims to boost bilateral trade and ties as well as the high-speed train projects.
The visit is at the invitation of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
Thailand's exports to China last year were valued at US$ 27.4 billion, up 27.6 per cent year-on-year, while imports rose 26.2 percent to $30.6 billion, according to the Kasikorn Research Institute.
Yingluck is also scheduled to discuss China's offer to help develop a high-speed railway linking southern China to Thailand through landlocked Laos.
Yingluck is scheduled to meet her Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao this afternoon at the Great Hall of the People and witness the signing of 10 agreements by the representatives of the two governments.
Among the key documents to be signed are agreements to boost bilateral trade and investment.
The Chinese premier will then host a state dinner to welcome the visiting prime minister.
On Wednesday morning, the PM and Thai businessmen will have breakfast with executives of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. She will deliver a speech on “development of Sino-Thai ties, partnership and cooperation on strategies”.
Yingluck is scheduled to pay courtesy calls on Chinese President Hu Jintao and Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee, the National People's Congress the same day.
She then will leave Beijing for Tokyo to attend a meeting of leaders of the Mekong River basin countries in Tokyo, scheduled for Friday through Monday (April 20-23). The meeting will be attended by the leaders of Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Japan.
She will represent Thailand and is due to sign the Tokyo Strategy for Mekong-Japan Cooperation during the summit.
