Mumbai : The Thailand Board of Investment today opened its Mumbai office in a bid to strengthen investment and trade ties between Thailand and India. To mark this occasion, FICCI organized a ‘Thailand-India Investment Cooperation Seminar’, which was addressed by shri Sachin Ahir, Minister of State for Industries ,Govt. Of  Maharashtra; Mr. Prasert Boonchaisuk, Minister of Industry of Thailand; Mr. Pisan Manawapat, Ambassador of Thailand and Mr. K.M. Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group.

Mr. Udom Wongviwatchai, Secretary General, Thailand Board of Investment, gave a presentation on ‘Thailand-India Investment Opportunities’.

A panel discussion on ‘Thailand-India Investment Cooperation’ was moderated by Mr. Sathit Sehgal, President of India-Thai Business Association. The panelists comprised Mr. Udom Wongviwatchai, Secretary General, Thailand Board of Investment; Mr. Chen Namchaisiri, Vice Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries and Mr. Anusorn Muttaraid, Chairman of Thai-India Business Council.

At present, Thailand and India are in the process of negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) covering trade in goods, which would further boost stronger bilateral economic ties. It is projected that the implementation of the proposed FTA between India and Thailand would help increase the bilateral trade to USD 16 billion by 2015.

India and Thailand have already implemented a preferential trade pact, officially dubbed as Early Harvest Scheme, under which duties have been eliminated or drastically reduced on about 80 products.

Currently, both the sides are intensely engaged in widening the base of the pact by reducing duties on over 90 per cent of the products traded between them.

Bilateral trade has grown significantly and has multiplied five times since 2000 to reach 8.83 billion USD in 2011-12. This represents nearly 27% increase from trade in 2010. While in the 2012-2013 (April to December) has reached 6.6 billion. The trade figure in 2011 includes Thai exports worth USD 4.39 billion and Thai imports worth USD 5.3 billion.

The major Thai items of exports to India include machinery & machinery appliances; organic chemicals; electrical machinery and parts; rubbers; plastics; auto parts/accessories; fabrics; refrigerator compressors.

Thai imports from India mainly comprise precious & semi-precious stones; machinery & machinery appliances; iron and steel; medicinal & pharmaceutical products.

Source : Sachin Murdeshwar