He made the remarks in an interview granted to theVietnam News Agency on the sidelines of the ministry’s press conference thatprovided an update about Thailand’s preparations for the 29th Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting.
Sangrat noted Thailand is currently the largest tradingpartner of Vietnam in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), whichin turn is also the former’s biggest investment destination.
Thailand welcomed more than 1 million tourists from Vietnam beforethe COVID-19 pandemic broke out, so Vietnam is also both a major touristdestination and a big source of foreign visitors to Thailand, he went on.
The official said Vietnam is an active member and importanteconomic partner in APEC, and it also used to host APEC economic leaders’meetings. Therefore, Thailand, Vietnam, and other APEC members will workclosely together to prepare for the member economies to become more sustainablein the future.

Vietnam is an emerging economy with fast growth and arelatively young population, making it an important market for Thailand andother countries as well as a significant investment destination for hiscountry, Sangrat added.
Expressing his hope for stronger ties, he recommended the twocountries exert more efforts to enhance the strength and continuity ofbilateral supply chains to manufacture products in the region.
The former Thai ambassador to Vietnam also highlighted thestrong social links between the countries, elaborating that there is a largeVietnamese-Thai community in Thailand and many Vietnamese people also used tolive in his country.
Given this, utmost efforts should be made to nurture the faithfulfriendship between the two peoples, he suggested./.