Thailand wants to be the kitchen for a hungry world, Yingluck says in US
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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra launched Thai Restaurant Week in New York yesterday to promote Thai food in the US and the policy of being the world's kitchen.
Thailand earns more than US$20 billion (Bt618 billion) from food exports annually and the country is the world’s largest rice exporter due to its agricultural strength and advanced food-processing technology, she told participants at the event at a New York hotel. Yingluck was in the US for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
Seventeen Thai restaurants in New York received “Thai Select” awards from the prime minister to guarantee their food quality, according to the government website.
The government says it aimed to produce and export more food for the world market in order to contribute to global food security. This policy would be a major contribution to a world facing food challenges due to climate change, Yingluck said.
While in New York, Yingluck attended a high-level meeting on the rule of law at the national and international levels, where Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol delivered a speech on the topic.
Yingluck also attended a dinner hosted by US President Barack Obama where she spoke briefly with the president on the 180th anniversary of Thai-US diplomatic relations. She told Obama that Thailand was ready to cooperate with the US as a strategic partner and increase people-to-people relations.
Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul accompanied the PM to the UN meeting. He said he had invited investors |from Belgium to join in development of the Dawei special economic zone in Myanmar, during a bilateral meeting with his Belgian counterpart Didier Reynders in New York.
Dawei was launched as a keystone project in relations between Thailand and Myanmar under the Yingluck government.
The Thai government has invited many investors to join the project as Thailand seeks out sources of capital to develop it.
Yingluck is scheduled to meet Myanmar President Thein Sein in New York today to discuss ways to speed up the project and other economic cooperation.
