BANGKOK: Thailand and South Korea yesterday agreed to increase technology transfers in the agricultural area, cooperate more closely in trade facilitation and training and promote the Thailand 4.0 Model. Agriculture Minister Chatchai Sarikulya and South Korea’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Kim Jae-Soo signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Sejong, South Korea to support agricultural trade, knock down technical barriers in the trading of agriculture products and facilitate investment in farming.
“South Korea is categorised as an emerging country with strong economic growth. “It has high potential to forge closer ties with Thailand in agriculture in many areas including technology cooperation and transfer, trade facilitation and trading,” he said. The two sides will maintain and strengthen the frequency of meetings and cooperation.
They will draw up a joint agricultural development programme for the effective utilisation of resources in the agricultural field, considering especially the potential of the two countries.Besides government-to-government collaboration, the agricultural sector could be facilitated by the process of institutional cooperation between Thailand and Korea’s public sectors. Areas of cooperation include the development of agriculture terrestrial animals and plants, development of farmers’ organisations and cooperatives, technical cooperation on irrigation systems and agricultural land and water resources management, and enhancement of cooperation and coordination within international and regional organisations.
Both sides will exchange technical officers and researchers, perform joint agricultural research and development, swap agricultural and technical information, and organise workshops, seminars and conferences on subjects of mutual interest. They will also engage in capacity building through training courses, study visits and other activities. A joint agricultural working group (JAWG) will be established to implement the provisions of this MoU. The JAWG will be co-chaired by executive officers – at the level of director-general or higher – of competent authorities. The JAWG will be responsible for assessing the outcomes of implementing the programmes of this MoU, submitting proposals for their further development and improvement and recommending possible ways and means of overcoming their problems or difficulties. The JAWG will meet every two years alternately in Thailand and Korea.
Thailand has re-emphasised that the Kingdom is interested in exporting frozen chicken to Korea after the country on November 9 lifted its ban on imports of Thai frozen chicken imposed 12 years ago during the bird flu outbreak. The first lot of Thai chicken have already been shipped to Korea on November 17. Chatchai said Thailand should become one of the major chicken suppliers for Korea soon. Each year, about 30,000-40,000 tonnes of frozen chicken worth Bt3 billion are expected to be sold to Korea.
