Trade officials from 10 ASEAN countriesand representatives of hundreds of businesses and airlines met in theThai capital of Bangkok on March 26 to boost commercial relationswithin the bloc.
The event served as an opportunityfor the ASEAN nations to introduce their potential, challenges as wellas roadmaps toward the building of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)by 2015.
It also provided useful information regarding trade, tourism andinvestment for enterprises to expand business activities in the nextfive years.
Thai Deputy Minister of Commerce Veerasak Jinarat said the ASEAN FreeTrade Agreement (AFTA), which removed trade barriers among the regionalcountries, has made the ASEAN an important export market for Thailandand other regional nations.
The establishment of the AEC will form an united market with 590million consumers, laying a firm foundation for enhancing economicgrowth of the
ASEAN countries.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Jinarat said Thailand highly evaluatedVietnam ’s huge potentials and high growth rate, adding that themeeting aimed to provide useful information to help Thai businessespour more investments into Vietnam and other regional countries.
As major rice exporters in the world, Thailand and Vietnam need to workclosely in this field, especially on issues related to prices andmarkets, he said.
Thailand has strived to increase its trade value with other ASEANnations from 57 billion USD in 2009 to 70 billion USD this year,including 10 billion USD in trade with Vietnam .
Commercial Counsellor at the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand NguyenThanh Hung said Vietnam ’s trade relations with other ASEAN countries,particularly Thailand , have grown steadily due to the bloc’s effortsto ease non-tariff barriers.
Hung also highlighted Vietnam’s opportunities and challenges once itfully joined the AEC, such as the reduction of export tariff to 0percent and the deeper penetration of Vietnamese goods in the regionalmarket./.
The event served as an opportunityfor the ASEAN nations to introduce their potential, challenges as wellas roadmaps toward the building of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)by 2015.
It also provided useful information regarding trade, tourism andinvestment for enterprises to expand business activities in the nextfive years.
Thai Deputy Minister of Commerce Veerasak Jinarat said the ASEAN FreeTrade Agreement (AFTA), which removed trade barriers among the regionalcountries, has made the ASEAN an important export market for Thailandand other regional nations.
The establishment of the AEC will form an united market with 590million consumers, laying a firm foundation for enhancing economicgrowth of the
ASEAN countries.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Jinarat said Thailand highly evaluatedVietnam ’s huge potentials and high growth rate, adding that themeeting aimed to provide useful information to help Thai businessespour more investments into Vietnam and other regional countries.
As major rice exporters in the world, Thailand and Vietnam need to workclosely in this field, especially on issues related to prices andmarkets, he said.
Thailand has strived to increase its trade value with other ASEANnations from 57 billion USD in 2009 to 70 billion USD this year,including 10 billion USD in trade with Vietnam .
Commercial Counsellor at the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand NguyenThanh Hung said Vietnam ’s trade relations with other ASEAN countries,particularly Thailand , have grown steadily due to the bloc’s effortsto ease non-tariff barriers.
Hung also highlighted Vietnam’s opportunities and challenges once itfully joined the AEC, such as the reduction of export tariff to 0percent and the deeper penetration of Vietnamese goods in the regionalmarket./.
