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Piyabutr Cholvijarn, Deputy Minister
of Industry of Thailand, led a Thai delegation comprising both
the Thai public and private sectors to visit three North Eastern
States of India (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam) from
January 9-12, 2008 to follow up the earlier visit to Tripura,
Assam and Meghalaya of Krirk-Krai Jirapaet, Thai Minister of
Commerce, and the North-East India Trade & Investment
Opportunities Week held in Bangkok in October 2007 with a view
to further promoting and strengthening Thai investment in the
North East and exploring its trade potentials. Piyabutr
Cholvijaran’s visit was in response to the invitation from Mani
Shankar Aiyar, Minister for the Development of the North-Eastern
Region of India.
The Thai delegation consisted of
representatives from the Thailand Board of Investment, the Royal
Thai Embassy in New Delhi, the Thai Office of Commercial Affairs
in New Delhi and Thai companies in the food, construction,
banking and steel industry.
The Indian delegation was headed by
Ms V.S.Rao, Secretary, Ministry for the Development of the North
Eastern Region. The delegation included officials of the
Ministry of DoNER and Secretary (Industry) of the States of
Arunachal pradesh, Assam and Sikkim. Meetings at Guwahati
(Assam) and Gangtok (Sikkim) were chaired by the respective
Chief Ministers of the States, Shri Tarun Gogoi and Shri Pawan
K. Chamling. The meeting at Itanagar was chaired by Shri Lombo
Tayeng, Minister for Public Health Engineering & Water Supply,
Government of Arunachal Pradesh.
The business seminars conducted in
Guwahati, Itanagar and Gangtok were very successful with more
than 100 people participating in each seminar and many sub-group
discussions on industries of common interest to the two parties.
Both sides recognized that food processing, agriculture, tourism
and infrastructure improvement in roads, hydro-electricity,
dams, water control in rivers, etc. are areas with the greater
potential to be further pursued. The meetings concluded that
there will be further cooperation through exchange of
information and further visits of organized trade, investment
and tourism delegations to advise and assist each other to
further promote Thailand-India trade and investment.
As of now, 42 proposals for
Thai-North East Trade Cooperation in investment and trade are
being actively pursued under the overall aegis and coordination
of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata.
The following points were highlighted
for future course of action:
To exchange tour operators
delegations between the North-East and Thailand.
To send tourists from Thailand to
visit North-Eastern States specially the Buddhist circuits.
Tourism Desk at the Embassy of
Thailand, New Delhi would assist in promoting tourism
destinations of the North-East Region.
Ministry of DoNER, Ministry of
Industry, Thailand and the Indian Chamber of Commerce would
organize a tourism convention either in Bangkok or North-East
India in 2008.
Arunachal Pradesh should aim to set
up one world class tourism facility in the State. The State
Government should also carry out a techno-economic survey to
assess the potential of the manufacturing sector in the State.
ICC would initiate the process of
setting up a North-East Investment Desk at the Indian Embassy in
Bangkok.
January 2008
Courtesy: Press Information Bureau
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