The Prime Minister of Thailand, Srettha Thavisin, shared with his Canadian and Australian colleagues recently that Thailand has thrown its doors open wide to foreign investments. His comments come at a time when there is notable movement of businesses globally towards the Asean region. Thavisin had a meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit which took place in San Francisco. The news was made public by the government’s spokesman, Chai Wacharonke.
According to Mr. Chai, both nations anticipate strengthening their collaboration across multiple arenas. The belief is that Apec stands to create a wealth of opportunities for both countries. In a bid to attract new business, Thavisin made it clear that Thailand is eager and prepared to embrace foreign investments. He leveraged the platform of the summit to relay this message across the global business community, shepherd by shifting trends showcasing an interest in corporate relocation to the Asean area.
Adding further favor to his case, Thavisin mentioned the rise in the number of international automobile manufacturers setting up bases for electric vehicle (EV) production in Thailand. It wasn’t lost on him that the summit was teeming with leading EV manufacturers. He took advantage of this opportunity to meet several of them who were showing interest in shifting some, if not all, of their capacity to Thailand.
The Thai regime has already built a reputation for itself for its promotion of Thailand as a booming hub for emerging technologies, providing incentives and privileges to businesses. Mr. Chai buttressed the point. Furthermore, he emphasized how keen Thailand is on strengthening the bilateral ties they share with Canada and discussed the potential for amplified collaboration under Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and the Asean-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
In addition to his meeting with Trudeau, Thavisin also had a discussion with the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, about the potential for investments in Thailand. In a gesture of goodwill, Thavisin accepted an invitation to participate in an upcoming special summit that would mark the 50-year milestone of Asean-Australian relations set to be held in Australia in March.
The two leaders noted that there had been significant strides towards a sophisticated FTA and more intimate people-to-people interactions, before converging on the topic of tourism—a key policy area for both administrations.
As a cherry on the top, Cherdchai Chaivaivid, the Director General of the Department of International Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pointed out that Thavisin was seated next to President Joe Biden at the Apec Gala Dinner. He relayed that Thavisin enjoyed an extensive conversation with the president during the two-hour-long event.
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