An economic and trade delegation from Hunan Province visited Thailand from November 25 to 27, 2023. The aim was to thoroughly implement the guiding principles of President Xi Jinping's important speech delivered at the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and contribute to building a China-Thailand community with a shared future.

During their visit, the delegation hosted the 2nd Hunan Equipment and Manufacturing Thailand Investment Expo in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. The delegation visited the Economic and Commercial Office of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Kingdom of Thailand and the Thailand Board of Investment, called on enterprises and chambers of commerce in Thailand, and paid a field visit to the second phase of the Hunan Industrial Park in Thailand.

To align with the needs of the Thai market and showcase Hunan's competitive industries, the expo organized seven exhibition areas involving construction machinery; agricultural machinery; bags, suitcases and leatherware; hardware; intelligent household electrical appliance; food and agricultural products; and, trade logistics. A special conference to promote Shaoyang City and economic and trade matchmaking meetings among enterprises from Hunan and Thailand were held. More than 100 enterprises participated in the expo and signed 10 cooperation agreements on the spot, with a contract amount of 1.15 billion yuan.

The delegation also visited the Thai headquarters of Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group), and the two sides reached a consensus on expanding investment in Hunan in such areas as pork intensive processing, rice bran oil, and supermarket alliances.

Hunan and Thailand are highly complementary in the fields of resource endowment and production capacity cooperation, with mutual advantages, needs and opportunities, and broad prospects for cooperation. Hunan has set up a total of 126 overseas investment enterprises in Thailand, with a contract value of 688 million USD for foreign direct investment from the Chinese side. In 2022, the import and export volume between Hunan and Thailand reached 20.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.2%. From January to September this year, the import and export volume was 13.45 billion yuan. Thailand has become an important trading partner of Hunan within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

ASEAN serves as the main destination for Hunan's competitive industries, excellent enterprises and high-quality products to expand their presence globally. Taking the visit as an opportunity, Hunan aims to enhance its role as a leverage to develop an opening-up hub in inland regions and promote friendly cooperation with ASEAN countries:
- seize the new opportunities brought about by the opening up of the RCEP region;
- give full play to Hunan's advantages to meet Thailand' demands;
- continuously improve economic and trade matchmaking mechanisms;
- actively build a platform for cooperation and exchanges;
- continue to optimize the business environment;
- further deepen cooperation and exchanges between Hunan and Thailand; and,
- consolidate and expand the outcomes of mutually beneficial cooperation.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn