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Yong (fifth right) presenting a Sabah hand-drawn batik to Wanwil.
KOTA KINABALU (April 5): Thailand is looking into establishing a bridgehead in East Malaysia to develop trade, investment and tourism potentials with Thailand.
This was stated by Worawan Wanwil, the Minister-Counsellor (Commercial) based at the Royal Thai Embassy in Kuala Lumpur at a dialogue with state-owned POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd here on March 31.
A Thai Fair featuring Thai products is being planned here for 2024 and a visit to Sabah by a Thai business group is also on the cards.
Wanwil is also the Director of the Embassy’s Department of International Trade Promotion Malaysia (DITP).
His visit, accompanied by two other officials, was a follow up to visits in 2018 and 2019 by Thai officials who had talked about seeking Sabah trading partners and ‘bridging trade and investment relations’ between Thailand and the east Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak.
Thailand has strong trade ties with Malaysia exchanging annually about RM12 billion worth of imports from each other, but the activities were confined to Peninsular Malaysia.
At the dialogue which touched on a wide range of topics from trade to tourism to BIMP-EAGA and ASEAN, the POIC Sabah delegation was led by its Group Chairman Datuk Seri Panglima Yong Teck Lee, Group Chief Executive Officer Datuk Fredian Gan, his deputy Lynette Hoo and senior managers.
Yong said Thailand’s strength in agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture could be a huge asset to optimise on the rich resources and yet-to-be developed value-adding sector in the BIMP-EAGA region of which East Malaysia is an integral part.
There are potentials in the processing of fruits and agriculture produce, such as in canning, and investment in this sector can potential have a kick-up effects upstream in farm management and productivity.
Fredian said POIC Sabah looks to explore areas of collaboration with Thai businesses especially in the free zone that has recently been approved by the Ministry of Finance to be implemented at POIC Lahad Datu.
Wanwil meanwhile said Thailand would like to explore with POIC Sabah so that bilateral trade can move beyond the traditional Malaysia-Thai border in northern Peninsular Malaysia.
He hopes that the Thai Fair planned for next year will provide the platform for business matching, and access to wider information about the proposed Free Zone at POIC Lahad Datu and the small and medium industrial cluster therein.
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