Thailand's BJC Group currently owns the leading retail brands in Vietnam. (Photo: VNA) In the context that the two countries arestriving to achieve the goals related to climate change response, especially net zero emissions, the Trade Office will make efforts to seek opportunities toconnect enterprises in those fields, Phuc said, adding that this is also aninevitable trend and there remains ample room to promote the bilateralcooperation in the future.
Talking to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)'s resident reporters inThailand, Phuc shared that the office will focus on local economic cooperation,especially between Northeastern provinces of Thailand, which house a largenumber of Vietnamese people, and central provinces of Vietnam.
With geographical proximity, cooperationbetween these two regions can help Vietnam promote trade links with Thailand,especially border trade via Laos; and facilitate access to each other's marketthrough local products under Thailand's OTOP (One Tambon One Product) programmeand Vietnam's OCOP (One Commune One Product).
Regarding supply chain connectivity, theofficial said that the office will promote support for Vietnamese businesses infinding and building agents and expanding commercial presence in Thailand, whileintroducing and bringing Vietnamese goods to Thai supermarketsthrough cooperation with large supermarket systems in the country such asCentral, Marko and TCC.
It will assist and boost industrial collaboration,especially in the automotive field such as finding and connecting manufacturers of component partsand accessories, added Phuc.
According to the official, the relationship betweenthe two countries is developing fruitfully, creating favourable conditionsfor the implementation of economic diplomacy in Thailand. Since theestablishment of the bilateral strategic partnership in 2013, two-way trade increasedby 230% from 9.4 billion USD to 21.6 billion USD in 2022. Last year, the figurereached nearly 19 billion USD.
At present, Thailand is Vietnam's biggesttrading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while thelatter is the former's No. 2 partner, after Malaysia.
Thailand now has more than 700 valid projects in Vietnam with combined investment of nearly 15 billion USD, ranking 9th among foreign investors in the country. Meanwhile, Vietnam's investment in Thailand remains modest with a sum of 32 million USD, focusing on consumer goods and distribution./.
VNA
