Thai Nguyen Keen On Fostering Business Opportunities With Thai Firms

The northern province of Thai Nguyen will create favorable conditions for Thai businesses, affirmed Nguyen Thanh Binh, Vice Chairman of Provincial People’s Committee at the meeting with President Sanan Angubolkul, a represenative of the Thailand – Vietnam Friendship Association. The president is currently traveling in Vietnam, meeting foreign friends and buisness partners.

At the meeting. Photo: Thu Ha

Accompanying the delegation were leaders of the Central Vietnam – Thailand Friendship Association, its President Ta Quang Ngoc; Vice President Nguyen Duy Hung, and General Secretary Nguyen Viet Loan.

At the meeting on September 20, Binh briefly introduced the outstanding achievements in socio-economic development of Thai Nguyen province during the time.

He said that in recent years, on the basis of the good strategic partnership between Vietnam and Thailand, Thai Nguyen province is implementing a cooperation project with Thailand by the Thai International Cooperation Agency (TICA) sponsored through the connection and support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Thailand in Vietnam. He highlighted the project “Sustainable Community Development Based on Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP)” implemented in Yen Lac commune of Phu Luong district.

Also, the two sides have coordinated to organize a training course for seven local community officials and farmers to participate in direct training in Thailand from May 12-24, 2019.

Thai experts have directly visited the area, exchanged and trained local farmers many times in order to improve the lives of poor people through the implementation of income-generating activities and rural environmental protection models to ensure sustainable development goals.

These activities and models include increasing the value of local products and specialties in the development of community tourism, promoting the building of collective networks, therby improving the capacity of the community through increasing internal resources and helping the community develop self-reliance.

Currently, TICA has sent three volunteers to continue to support the project implementation in Phu Luong district.

Thai Nguyen has accompanied, supported and created the most favorable conditions within the legal framework for Central Retail Group implementing investment project to build a GO! hypermarket, the 38th kind of the group with a total area of ​​36,000m2, total investment of VND 540 billion (US $22.7 million). This is the largest and most modern project of Central Retail Group in Vietnam ever.

Central Retail is the leading multi-model retail Group in Thailand, Vietnam, and Italy, operating in three main fields, including fashion, home appliances, and food. The group started its business in Vietnam in 2012 in the fashion industry. To date, the group has gradually become the largest multidisciplinary retailer with foreign investment in Vietnam.

Regarding the implementation of local cooperation between Thai Nguyen and Udon Thani province, Thai Nguyen has exchanged and sought information through the Thai Embassy in Vietnam, the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand; reached an agreement with the Foreign Affairs Office of Udon Thani province to develop a draft Memorandum of Understanding between Thai Nguyen Provincial People’s Committee and Udon Thani’s counterpart.

“We are waiting for a reply from the Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry on the signing between the two localities, when there is a written response from the ministry on this matter, we will discuss and agree on the signing time with Udon Thani province,” said Binh.

Thai Nguyen province wished to continue to receive the attention and support from the Thailand – Vietnam Friendship Association and the Central Vietnam – Thailand Friendship Association.

The exchange and cooperation relations between Thai Nguyen province and localities, and agencies and organizations of Thailand, open up more opportunities for the two sides to strengthen the establishment of cooperative relations in fields such as culture, social security, education – training, health care, investment – trade, especially digital transformation, application of 4.0 technology in industrial production, and agriculture.

The Vice Chairman of Provincial People’s Committee also suggested that the Thailand – Vietnam Friendship Association introducing and connecting Thai businesses and investors to Thai Nguyen to explore future cooperation and investment opportunities.

Delegates attending the meeting. Photo: Thu Ha

Expressing his impression of the development of Thai Nguyen province in recent years, Sanan Angubolkul, who is Chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Thailand-Vietnam Business Council, says that Thai Nguyen is the first Vietnamese locality that the new leadership of the friendship association has visited and worked with the desire to strengthen relations with the province.

Recently, many provinces of Thailand and Vietnam have established twin relationships, however, conditions to implement cooperation activities are not developing in a practical and effective way. During this visit to Thai Nguyen, the Thailand – Vietnam Friendship Association wishes to facilitate the “twinning” relationship between Udon Thani and Thai Nguyen provinces.

Angubolkul affirms that the Thailand – Vietnam Friendship Association will do its best to promote the people-to-people relations, economic, educational and technological cooperation between the two countries, thereby bringing mutual benefits to the two associations, to Thai Nguyen province and to the two countries.

On the same day, the delegation of the Thailand – Vietnam Friendship Association visited the Friends from Thailand (FFT) Volunteer and listened to the progress of supporting the implementation of the SEP project in Dong Bong and Dong Tien hamlets of Yen Lac commune.

The delegation also visited the Hao Dat Tea Cooperative in Tan Cuong commune and GO! Thai Nguyen shopping center.