Thailand plans to establish special economic zones with border countries

The government of Thai is stepping up border trade activities and establishing special economic zones with neighboring countries to boost trade and investment. The Thai Ministry of Commerce has forecast cross-border trade will be increased by 5% to about $ 30.2 billion.

Mr. Surong Bulkul the Parliamentary Deputy speaker has requested on the government to speed up the reopening of border crossings between Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar to boost trade, investment, and tourism.

He believes such measures could be part of helping the local economy, which is being hit by global market risks such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the energy crisis, and the sharp rise in commodity prices. Agricultural raw materials, especially facing a trade war between the United States and China.

The Bangkok Post quoted the Thai parliamentary speaker as saying: The government should consider allowing more cassava imports from Laos and Cambodia to balance the bilateral trade volume, which could help ease tensions. Economic hardship in those countries as well. And Thailand must strengthen measures to control the quality standards of imported cassava to ensure that there are no diseases to affect other crops.

Mr. Strong added that special economic zones included with neighboring countries should start focusing on the food processing industry, which can facilitate the flow of illegal workers to Thailand as well as the influx of agricultural products.

Thai entrepreneurs will be lost the opportunity due to sight of the high competition if Cambodia and Laos sell cassava to Vietnam and China. This is according to the Bangkok Post published on July 01.

Deputy Speaker of the Thai Parliament The opening of the border allows workers from neighboring countries to work in the region and go back home in the evening, while Thailand can buy agricultural products for processing and sell those products to neighboring countries. It is also to be noted that, Thailand's border trade in the first four months of 2022 fails down to $ 8.8 billion.

The bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and Thailand reached 1.9 billion US dollars in the first five months. This is an increase of 18% compared to the same period in 2021, which is more than 1.5 billion dollars. This is according to the trade statistics of the General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia.