“Pichai” joins hands with “Lao PDR” to push trade to exceed the target of 11,000 million dollars in 2025

Pichai' discussed with Laos to jointly push for bilateral trade to achieve the trade target of 11 billion US dollars by 2025 and increase the time for temporary vehicle import-export permits from 15 days to 30 days. Mr. Pichai Naripthaphan, Minister of Commerce, revealed that yesterday (8 October), he had a bilateral meeting with Mr. Malaithong Kommasith, Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Lao PDR, in Vientiane, Lao PDR, to congratulate the success of the Lao PDR in being the ASEAN Chair in 2024 and asked the Lao PDR to consider reopening the border checkpoints that are still closed and facilitate the border checkpoints, where in 2023, the total trade between Thailand and Lao PDR was worth as high as 7,634.39 million dollars. He also asked the Lao PDR to facilitate the export of Thai products across the border to China and Vietnam via routes R3A, R9, R12 and the Laos-China Railway. In the middle of last year, I would like to thank the Lao PDR for relaxing measures for Thai trucks to pass through the Lao PDR, which has made it convenient for Thailand to transport fruits from Thailand to China. I would also like to ask for a review of the temporary import and export permit period for vehicles in the form of tourism and freight transport from 15 days to 30 days. In addition, in terms of accelerating negotiations for the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA), both countries will cooperate to progress the negotiations by 50 percent this year, which will develop Lao MSMEs to have greater access to e-commerce, which will be a channel to increase the value of Lao trade. Thailand will help raise issues for Laos to support the DEFA negotiations. 'Thailand is pleased to support and assist Lao PDR in closely resolving the problem of cross-border haze management, especially in promoting trade in environmentally friendly agricultural products and sustainable agriculture. For agricultural products, Lao PDR asks that Thailand purchase more agricultural products from Laos in order to increase farmers' income, which will help Laos' economy expand and increase imports of products from Thailand,' said Mr. Pichai. Source: Thai News Agency