Trade and industry in Coimbatore can have better business co-operation with those in Thailand now as two industrial organisations here have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Thai organisation.
Vanitha Mohan, president of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, R. Ramamurthy, president of Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, and S.S. Phool, president of the Indo-Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thailand, signed an agreement on Tuesday here for better business relationship between Coimbatore and Thailand.
Ms. Mohan said Thailand offers a lot of opportunities and each association that has signed the agreement has its strengths. The industries will benefit from it. Thai industries can look at setting shop in Coimbatore.
“India is dependent on China and ASEAN for electronics. We can look at the scope in Thailand,” Ms. Mohan said.
Mr. Phool said a delegation from here should visit Thailand and an agenda for the areas of working together can be finalised in a couple of months. There are a lot of large-scale Indian investments in Thailand.
Mr. Ramamurthy added that the MSMEs can also explore opportunities for investments in that country.
D. Devadas, former secrtary of the Indo-Thai Chamber of Commerce, said that the bilateral trade between India and Thailand in 2017 grew nearly 10% compared to the previous year. It was worth $ 7.82 billion in 2016. Thailand exports a lot of packaged food products and computer peripherals to India and buys chemicals and components from India.
There are opportunities for educational institutions here to take on lease university premises in Thailand and Indian students can go to Thailand for studies. The cost will be lower compared to India mainly because the infrastructure is already built, he said.
According to V. Sundaram, former president of Codissia, India can source low cost agricultural equipment from Thailand.
