ACC Secretary-General Met with Deputy Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Commerce of Thailand

On 28 April 2016, ACC Secretary-General H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping paid a courtesy call on H.E. Mr. Vuthichai Duangratana, Deputy Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Commerce of Thailand. Officials of Department of International Trade Promotion of the Ministry, and Ms. Phasporn Sangasubana, Acting Director-General of the ASEAN Department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, attended the meeting. 

Secretary-General Yang said that economic cooperation was the highlight of ASEAN-China relations. At the end of 2015, the upgraded ASEAN-China FTA was completed, bringing more economic integration between both sides.  China was ASEAN’s largest trade partner, and ASEAN was China’s 4th largest trade partner. The economic cooperation had expanded from the traditional areas of trade and investment to broader areas such as connectivity, production capacity, finance and energy, etc. Both ASEAN and China enjoyed high economic complementarity, both sides were tasked to carry out economic transformation and to upgrade and sustain economic development.

Secretary-General Yang briefed on ACC’s work in trade and investment. She said that ACC, bearing in mind the target set by the Leaders of ASEAN-China of the bilateral trade volume to 1 trillion USD and of increased stock investment of 150 billion USD by 2020, had actively publicized the policies of ASEAN-China FTA, organized trade and investment missions of Chinese enterprises to ASEAN countries to seek business opportunities, and established ASEAN commercial centres in China to facilitate access of ASEAN products to the Chinese market. In 2016, ACC would implement four projects in trade and investment, and promote cooperation in e-commerce, trade and investment. In May 2016, ACC would organize missions to Malaysia and Brunei for business matching. ACC would like to enhance communication and cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce of Thailand, with a view to instilling new vitality to ASEAN-China economic cooperation.

Deputy Permanent Secretary Vuthichai said Thailand and China enjoyed sound relations, close exchange and fruitful progress in all-round areas. Thailand attached great importance to economic cooperation with China, and the Ministry had set up 7 trade promotion offices in China. China was Thailand’s largest trade partner. It was hoped that China’s development would bring more opportunities to Thailand and other ASEAN countries in order to achieve win-win outcome and benefit the people. He commended ACC for the work in trade and investment, and expected ACC to bring more Chinese enterprises to invest and do business in Thailand. The Ministry of Commerce of Thailand would like to actively participate in ACC’s activities, and explore platforms of trade and investment exchanges with a view to promoting the healthy and sustainable development of ASEAN-China economic cooperation.