Thailand keen to explore areas of cooperation in SCORE
KUCHING: Thailand is keen to explore potential areas of cooperation with Sarawak, especially in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score), said its Ambassador to Malaysia, Narong Sasitorn.
Narong, who is on his first visit to the state, said his country would like to see how it could be involved in the economic development projects, apart from Sarawak’s drive towards a digital economy.
“Business partnership is still at an infancy stage between Thailand and Sarawak. That is precisely why I am here visiting Sarawak, which has great potentials as a business partner,” he told a media conference here yesterday.
The Thai envoy is leading a six-member delegation to Sarawak to further explore potentials in bilateral collaborations during his two-day visit here, hosted by the AseanChina Entrepreneurs Association.
Narong said he would be making courtesy calls on Sarawak Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud and Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Abang Openg tomorrow and hoped to discuss potential areas of mutual interests.
This also included the agriculture sector, particularly food processing, as well as tourism, whereby Thailand could cooperate with Sarawak by providing training courses on tourism sustainability, he said.
Although there is currently no direct air accessibility from Kuching to Bangkok, Chiang Mai or Phuket in Thailand, he said it could be a game changer for people-to-people contact between these places.
Next year, the Thai business community through the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur was also expected to bring businessmen to Sarawak for networking, with the aim to clinch joint-ventures, he added.
At present, Narong said that Thailand’s national petroleum exploration and production company, PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Ltd had won a contract to explore three oil and gas fields in Sarawak.
While trade between Sarawak and Thailand is negligible, he said bilateral trade between Malaysia and Thailand was looking at a positive growth of 16% for the January to September period this year.
Last year, bilateral trade was between US$24bil and US$25bil, making Malaysia as Thailand’s biggest trading partner among Asean nations, he added. — Bernama