Thailand and Malaysia have agreed to strengthen cooperation ontrade and investment in six sectors, including oil and gas, energy,rubber, automobiles, sugar and rice, and tourism, the CommercialMinistry of Thailand has said.
Thai CommerceMinister Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan said the two countries willpromote cross-border trade by streamlining customs procedures andfacilitating their logistics growth.
Thailandearned 16.5 billion USD from border trade with Malaysia in 2012. Thefigure is expected to grow strongly under the Thai plan to drawMalaysian investors to do business in the country. Thailand also isscheduled to host the second Joint Trade Committee meeting in Chiang Maiin mid-November 2013.
Malaysia is Thailand’s largest trading partner in ASEAN, and the fourth largest overall.Bilateral trade has grown by an annual average of 10.54 percent duringthe past five years. It hit 26.5 billion USD in 2012 and 13 billion USDin the first half of this year.-VNA