By Arno Maierbrugger
Gulf Times Correspondent
Bangkok

With international trade sanctions against Iran about to be lifted shortly, Thailand is making further efforts to deepen trade ties with the former pariah state. Back in July, the Thai Commerce Ministry already said that it wants to boost ties and will organise a “Thailand Week 2015” in Tehran, as well as lead a trade mission to Iran (Gulf Times reported on July 31).
The trade mission, the first of its kind, took place last week. Thailand’s Deputy Commerce Minister Suvit Maesincee led a 75-member delegation of Thai officials and business people of 53 companies which arrived on November 23 in Tehran.
The main target of the mission was to find ways to increase bilateral trade from $357mn in 2014 to $1.2bn in three years. This will, as a fact, need strong efforts as trade has been declining in the past, particularly due to low oil prices. Bilateral trade between Thailand and Iran used to stand at an average of $600mn a year, but fell as oil prices slumped. During the first 10 months of 2015, Thailand’s exports to Iran were worth $181mn.
According to Maesincee, the two countries had “great opportunities” to strengthen trade and investment. The Thai business delegation consisted of representatives of companies active in the fields of food and agriculture, construction, car spare parts, as well as clothing and jewellery who are seeking new trade channel not just with Iran, but to the greater region.
“Iran could be a gateway for Thailand to penetrate the Middle East market,” the Deputy Commerce Minister said. “In turn, Thailand is being considered by Iran as a gateway to markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, particularly Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam,” he added.
According to the Tehran Times, Iranian officials said that Iran had the capacity to invest in Thailand’s petrochemical, automotive, food, agriculture and textile sector, as well as specifically seek cooperation in tourism and hotel management as Iran acknowledges Thailand’s high expertise in this field.
Thailand, on its part, could invest in hotels, shopping malls and other touristic infrastructure and set up hotel management training facilities in Iran.
Iran also showed interest in enticing more Thai investment in other infrastructure development. To that end, both sides considered to set up government-to-government and government-to-private initiatives which could involve Thai construction firms which are seen to have high potential to join Iran’s public infrastructure and building projects. Large Thai construction companies such as Italian-Thai Development were specifically named to have good potential to join projects launched by Iran’s New Towns Development Corp which is planning and building entire new cities in the country.
Representatives of Thai financial institutions also joined the mission to look into the possibility of improving payment channels as Iran is about to get re-integrated into the global banking system. To facilitate trade for both countries, the Bank of Thailand and the Central Bank of Iran are jointly developing financial transaction systems which are aimed at making trade payments easier in the future. Banking sanctions against Iran might be lifted by mid-January.
Big hopes are also being set on two sectors were Thailand is undeniable a strong global force: Thailand wants to ship about 200,000 tonnes of rice to Iran next year and compete with India and Pakistan, Iran’s main current rice sources. Iran has demand for up to 1.5mn tonnes of rice each year, the mission was told.
More Iranians would also be encouraged to visit Thailand for holidays or as health tourists whereby the Thai side promised to speed up visa services. The new six-month multiple entry visa for Thailand available since November 13 should also simplify travel paperwork and increase tourist numbers from Iran.