Thailand Seeks to Enhance Trade with Maharashtra

MVIRDC World Trade Centre Mumbai organised an interactive meeting for a Thailand government delegation led by Mr. Ekapol Poolpipat to explore opportunities for trade and economic cooperation with the State of Maharashtra. Mr. Poolpipat said, “Thailand has initiated discussions with the officials of the Government of Maharashtra for bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual interest and is keen to participate in investment Summits such as Magnetic Maharashtra as and when they take place in the state”.

Mr. Poolpipat identified three prominent sectors viz. harvest and post-harvest technologies, digital technologies and film production & distribution as focus areas for collaboration between both countries. The locations for these sectors would ideally be Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Surat, he informed. He further added that there are excellent possibilities of cooperation in wine production, dry fruits and dairy processing and production, with value addition.

Mr. Siddhartha Rastogi, Director - Asset Management, Ambit Capital Private Limited highlighted that both Thailand and Maharashtra excel in key areas such as textiles, automobiles, food processing, fisheries and sea trade and can cooperate in food processing, auto-manufacturing, computer and IT hardware parks, textiles, solar panels, biodegradable packaging, banana processing, cement manufacturing, LED lighting systems, robotics, tourism and ayurvedic products. While Thailand is a front-runner in technologies, India offers superior quality labour force and together they could build global brands for products and services.
Maharashtra excels in IT-enabled services such as BPOs, KPOs, medical transcriptions, while Thailand has the core competence in manufacture of IT hardware such as computer hard disks, so both countries can complement each other, Mr. Rastogi added. With Maharashtra’s speedy urbanisation, there are excellent opportunities for cooperation in the sector of waste treatment and disposals, Mr. Rastogi emphasised.

Ms. Rupa Naik, Senior Director, MVIRDC World Trade Centre Mumbai mentioned that Maharashtra is home to several industry clusters namely automobile, engineering, food processing, dairy, information technology, among others and these could be strengthened with appropriate technologies from Thailand.

Bilateral trade between India and Thailand stood at USD 10.79 billion in 2017-18 and Ms. Naik hoped that this could be doubled in the next five years.

Top Photo

From (L-R): Mr. Siddhartha Rastogi, Mr. Ekapol Poolpipat, Ms. Rupa Naik, Ms. Supatra Sawaengsri, Ms Rutchanee Uerpairojkit, Ms. Kanit Nattwongasem, Ms. Dujpetch Phutthabucha and Ms Nattayaporn Khawpong.

Below Photo

Mr. Ekapol Poolpipat addressing the participants. Also present (L-R): Mr. Siddhartha Rastogi and Ms. Rupa Naik.