Thai Industry Minister Dr Atchaka Sibunruang considers land as an important issue in attracting Thai investors to Bangladesh saying that many investors of her country are interested to invest in Bangladesh. “Bangladesh is an important country for Thailand and we hope Thai investment in the country would grow in the coming years,” the minister said during a high level panel discussion meeting held on the sidelines of first-ever Bangladesh Trade and Investment Expo 2016 that began in Bangkok on Monday. Ministers of Industry, Commerce, Telecommunications and Energy of Bangladesh and Thailand attended the panel discussion meeting highlighting the scope of economic cooperation with each other. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim and State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid attended the meeting from the Bangladesh side while Industry Minister Archaka Sibunruang, Vice Minister for Information and Communication Technology Dr Pansak Siriruchattapong and chairman of standing committee on energy, national reform steering assembly Kurujit Nakornthap were from the Thai side. Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries Chen Namchaisiri, Vice Chairman of Thai Chamber of Commerce Kalin Sarasin and Vice Chairman of Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau Mafruha Sultana also took part in the panel discussion. Bangladesh Ambassador to Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem moderated the session. The Thai industry minister focused on promoting tourism first for the Thai people as centring it, investment opportunities in many catering sectors would be developed. She also finds scope of cooperation in textile sector for having similar cultural heritage. The Bangladesh commerce minister said Bangladesh wants to get duty-free and quota-free (DFQF) facility to those products which the country can export to Thailand. He said the DFQF facility given for around 6,000 Bangladesh products could not provide benefit to the country for not giving the facility to Bangladesh’s major exportable products. “We are even ready to have free trade agreement with Thailand,” he told the panel urging them to get the similar trade benefit as Bangladesh is enjoying as a least developed country. During the panel discussion, telecommunications ministers of Bangladesh and Thailand invited each other to work together for providing benefits of the peoples of both countries through relocating Thai industries to Bangladesh. The Thai side offered cooperation in renewable energy sector and said there is scope of work with Bangladesh in gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal and the Ganges delta basin and off-grid electrification.
