Thai, Vietnam work on boosting two-way trade

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha came to these agreements with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung during his two-day visit to Hanoi, Government Spokesman Yongyuth Mayalarp said.

During the first nine months of this year, trade between the two countries amounted to $7.6 billion, an increase of 11 per cent year on year. 

The two leaders also agreed to boost trade and connectivity, especially via the cross-country highway network linking Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, called R8, R9 and R12, under the framework of the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC) and the North-West Economic Corridor (NWEC). 

Prayut also proposed the launching of a passenger transport service linking the Northeast of Thailand with Vietnam to enhance trade, investment and tourism in the Greater Mekong Subregion. 

In a meeting with Prayut on Thursday, Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang hailed the 40 years of strong bilateral diplomatic relations the two countries have enjoyed, Yongyuth said. 

The president also congratulated Thailand for signing the 2014-2018 strategic partnership with Vietnam, which makes the Kingdom the only Asean country to have signed such an accord, Yongyuth said. 

Prayut also called on Nguyen Sinh Hung, chairman of Vietnam’s National Assembly, who expressed pleasure over the warm relations the two governments have. 

Prayut also informed Hung that Thai MPs would attend the 132nd Inter-Parliamentary Union General Assembly to be held in Hanoi in March and April next year, saying he wanted to see close cooperation between the lawmakers of both countries, Yongyuth said. 

Yesterday Prayut met Ta Quang Ngoc, president of the Vietnam-Thailand Friendship Association, and they discussed several projects under the bilateral cooperation framework. Ngoc voiced appreciation over the fact that Thailand and Vietnam had agreed to establish a sister-city link between Thailand’s Chachoengsao and Vietnam’s Mekong Delta city of Can Tho. 

Before returning home yesterday, Prayut took time to lay wreaths at the Vietnam War Memorial and at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, and upon arrival in Bangkok, he told reporters that all Asean countries had to walk together and that nobody was a leader.

“We will have joint achievements that will create security and no conflicts,” he said.