Promoting Vietnam- Thailand Tourism Tie

“There are many reasons to believe in a considerable economic growth between Vietnam and Thailand this year” said Pisanu Chanvitan, Thai Ambassador to Vietnam in a recent talk with Vietnam Business Forum.

Could you talk about Vietnam-Thailand economic cooperation in 2009?

The economic cooperation between Thailand and Vietnam has grown considerably, especially over the last 5 years, and covers all areas of economic exchanges. Both countries are each other’s important markets. The bilateral trade value has exceeded US$5 billion since 2008.

Thailand is in the Top 10 list of foreign investors in Vietnam with over 216 active projects and the total amount ofUS$5.8 billion.

Despite the effect of the global economic crisis in 2009, we have seen a growing number of Thai investors in Vietnam and the expansion of the existing projects, while the bilateral trade volume remained at the same level as the previous year. This clearly demonstrates the potential of the Vietnamese market as well as the resilience of the Thai-Vietnam economic cooperation.

Do you expect the two countries’ trade and investment will reach a new height?

Thailand and Vietnam have invested considerably in the development of road linkages and transportation networks along the East–West Economic Corridor (EWEC). But, still, we have not tapped the optimum benefit of these linkages due to the technical problems that cause delays in cross border transportation both of people and goods. I strongly believe that if we can expedite the formalities at the borders, we will certainly see a significant increase of tourists, trade, and investment.

There will also be plenty of room for co-operation on other agricultural products when the transportation links in our sub-region become more convenient. Seafood from the central provinces of Vietnam can be exported via Route number 9 to markets in the north-eastern Thailand which have a huge demand for seafood. Thailand can also invest in the seafood-related industries in those provinces of Vietnam.

2010 sees tax reduction accordance to FTA agreement between ASEAN and China.How does this affect the Thai companies doing business in Vietnam?

I suppose that there are always those who benefit and those who lose when any country applies FTA. But in general, the FTA generates economic growth and expands markets through the reduced cost which would benefit the consumers.

Any company in Vietnam should benefit from the FTA agreement between ASEAN and China which helps cut cost of their imported production materials and reduces tax barriers for their export goods to the Chinese market.

What is the investment trend of Thai investors in 2010? Are Thai investors satisfied with Vietnam’s investment environment?

Certainly, besides those Thai investors who have already had the approval of their projects licenses, the Embassy has also received many groups of potential investors from Thailand.

We notice that the Thai investors are interested in the agro-industry, food processing industry, petrochemical industry, construction and housing projects.

I applaud the effort of the Vietnamese Government in trying to relax numbers of administrative procedures and make the investment environment more favorable to foreign investors.

I spoke with many Thai investors here and it seems that they are quite satisfied with the development of overall business and investment environment in Vietnam. I hope that this effort will continue, especially regarding the infrastructure.

Tourism is one of Thailand’s strengths, is there any plan from Thailand to further cooperate with Vietnam in this sector?

Thailand and Vietnam have cooperated in tourism for 10 years. The tourism authorities of the two countries have exchanged information and visits. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has organized a number of training courses for the Vietnamese tourism personnel. Most recently, a group of Vietnam Administration of Tourism Agency and Tourism Agencies visited Thailand on 1 March 2010 on their observation tour under the cooperation programme between the tourism authorities of the two countries.

In fact, Thailand and Vietnam are important transportation hubs in South East Asia. During the official visit to Vietnam of Mr Abhisit Vejjajiva, Prime Minister of Thailand, in July 2009, both sides agreed to promote tourism activities as well as develop infrastructure to support the potential increase in the number of tourists under the project “One Million Tourists Programme 2015”.

I believe the goal is not too ambitious if we could expedite the border crossing process. As for tourist attraction packages, the relevant authorities in both countries are working closely and I think we can look forward to seeing these interesting packages when we participate in the celebration of Thang Long–Ha Noi millennium in 2010

Tags: Vietnam Thailand Tourism cooperation