MOSCOW: The 6th Russia-Thailand Intergovernmental Commission on Bilateral Cooperation met in Moscow this month. The meeting was co-chaired by Denis Manturov, Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia and Tanasak Patimapragorn, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. A large delegation representatives of major Thai ministries accompanied Patimapragorn.
The sides discussed the progress in the implementation of agreements signed between the countries when Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Thailand in April. There were the usual expressions of desire to increase cooperation in manufacturing, agriculture and investment.
Ten agreements were signed as a result Medvedev’s April visit to Thailand. We, the members if the business community, truly hope that all of them will be implemented. The Russian Prime Minister noted that last year our trade turnover grew by almost 20 percent to around $5 billion, according to Thai estimates. The positive trend continues this year as well, despite economic difficulties.
Trade ties have been on the upswing for a while. There is already an agreement for Russia to supply Sukhoi Superjet-100 (SSJ-100) civil aircraft. Russian truck manufacturer KamAZ has successfully entered the Southeast Asian market.
We will celebrate when passengers in Thailand fly on SSJ-100s. KamAZ is eyeing big orders in the kingdom and offers quality trucks that are more competitively priced than its Japanese or European counterparts.
Russia and Thailand have set a bilateral trade target of $10 billion in the next five years. For this, we also need to remove trade barriers.
Areas of mutual interest include energy, food supplies, Thai participation in the Russian agricultural sector, as well as global navigation systems and space exploration.
Moscow and Bangkok recognize the benefits of further investment cooperation, especially in sectors such as food processing and automotive parts. Thailand is also keen to invest in Russia’s upcoming special economic zones.
