Prayut eyes Tokyo’s smart city as model for EEC development
Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday led a Thai delegation to Haneda Innovation City in Tokyo – Japan’s model smart city.
The trip came one day after Prayut met with Japanese PM Fumio Kishida for talks on boosting economic, investment and tourism ties between their two countries.
Prayut was welcomed to Haneda Innovation City by Amano Hiromasa, CEO of Hajima Corp, which operates the smart city in Tokyo’s bay-side Ota city.
Ota’s mayor Matsubara Tadayoshi left Prayut a video message saying the city was eager to cooperate with future industries in Thailand’s private sector.
Government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said Haneda Innovation City was a hub of smart development powered by government, public sector and local investment.
“The smart city houses research and development centres in smart mobility, robotics, medical technology and hydrogen stations. It also has several hotels, offices, convention centres and shops that demonstrate a perfect blend of Japanese culture and modern technology.”
Thanakorn said PM Prayut’s visit was aimed at forging smart-city cooperation between Thailand and Japan to benefit the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) – especially the AMATA Smart City in Chonburi province.
After touring the city in the afternoon, the PM and delegation headed back to Thailand and landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 7.50pm (Thailand time).
Prayut was in Japan to give a speech at the 27th International Conference on the Future of Asia (Nikkei Forum), which took place on Thursday and Friday.
The visit came three weeks after Thailand and Japan agreed a new defence deal during Kishida’s visit to Bangkok on May 2.
