Japan to help Thailand join TPP trade bloc, Somkid says
TOKYO: Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak says Thailand is highly likely to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement signed by 12 Pacific Rim countries last month.
At a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday, Mr Somkid said Japan had pledged to support Thailand joining the much-touted new trade bloc.
Mr Somkid said Japan has offered to help Thailand study the impacts of TPP membership including its benefits, and the challenges Thailand needs to prepare for.
“Thailand is very curious about the TPP which potentially offers vast opportunities,” Mr Somkid said. “Japanese investors have also expressed concerns to us over Thailand’s stance on whether to join the TPP because they fear that if we refuse to join the pact it could adversely affect their investments in Thailand.”
Mr Somkid said the existing working committee studying the TPP pact needs to be restructured to include representatives from other industries such as labour, agriculture, public health, and foreign affairs. Committee members now mainly come from the Commerce Ministry chaired by Deputy Commerce Minister Suvit Maesincee.
During talks with Mr Abe, Thailand also called for Japanese investment in 10 targeted industries being promoted as clusters, rail development and small and medium enterprise enhancements, Mr Somkid said.
In a keynote speech on Thailand’s new economic policies at a seminar titled “Thailand: Moving Forward to Sustainable Growth” yesterday afternoon, Mr Somkid said even though the world economy remains sluggish and Thai exports are feeling the effects, the overall outlook for the Thai economy is strong. About 1,000 Japanese investors attended the seminar.
Thailand’s foreign reserves are estimated at US$157 billion compared with short-term foreign debt of $55 billion, a public debt to GDP ratio of only 43%, low inflation, and unemployment at only 0.9%.
Despite this year’s decline in growth, it is expected consumer and industrial confidence will rise as a result of the stimulus packages implemented by the government in the past three months.
They include the injection of funds and credit to local communities both at district and sub-district levels to create employment and generate local income; the provision of low-cost loans and tax cuts to reduce the burden on SMEs that currently lack capital and liquidity; and measures to stimulate the real estate market, an important sector that can have a spill-over effect on many related sectors.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) yesterday signed three memorandums of understanding with the Japan External Trade Organisation, Japan Association of Travel and TV Asahi Corporation on tourism cooperation.
TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn said this cooperation will boost Japanese tourist arrivals to two million by 2020. The TAT targeted 1.3 million Japanese visitors who have brought in revenue of 54.9 billion baht so far this year and 1.4 million visitors and 61 billion in revenue next year.
In the first 10 months of the year, Japanese arrivals rose by 12% to 1.14 million, generating 47.2 billion baht.