Thailand wants to boost investment cooperation with Australia, Laos

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, right, greets Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin during the leaders' arrival at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, in Melbourne, Australia March 5, 2024 (Photo: Reuters)

Bangkok (VNA) – Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has met with leaders and representatives of enterprises of Australia and leaders of ASEAN member states at the ongoing 2024 ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne to boost investment cooperation of Thailand with Australia and other countries in the region.

In his talks with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on March 5, PM Srettha expressed Thailand's readiness to promote trade, investment, tourism, and bilateral cooperation on technology and innovation under the Joint Declaration on the Strategic Partnership between the two countries.

Regarding the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which has boosted bilateral trade growth by 186%, Srettha noted that efforts will be made to improve the agreement in line with the changing circumstances.

The Thai PM also met with leaders of some of Australia's leading businesses such as Fortescue, a global green energy and metals mining company that also makes electric vehicle batteries; and Linfox, Asia Pacific's largest private logistics company, which has had regional offices in Bangkok since 1993. 

Within the framework of the summit, the PM discussed a series of bilateral projects with his Lao counterpart Sonexay Siphandone.

On his personal social media account, Srettha said the project to build a new railway bridge over the Mekong River is being studied to facilitate traffic between Thailand and Laos, while the fifth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge will open to traffic this year.

The construction of the road connecting Thailand's Bueng Kan province with Laos's Bolikhamsai province is nearly complete.  He also asked Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone to speed up the identification of the Joint Control Area (CCA) location to reduce transportation costs between the two countries.

Earlier, PM Srettha also held talks with his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim and discussed tourism cooperation under the "six countries, one destination" initiative to promote joint tourism between Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia/.