New Delhi, Sep 21 (KNN) The Royal Thai Consulate, Consul-General,  Ekapol Poolpipat said at an interactive meeting that India and Thailand have emerged as prominent trade and economic partners and both countries offer ample opportunities for cooperation in several sectors of mutual complementarities.

Thailand has initiated discussions with the officials of the Government of Maharashtra for bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual interest and is keen to participate in investment Summits such as Magnetic Maharashtra as and when it takes place in the state.

Poolpipat was leading an official delegation from Thailand to explore opportunities for trade and economic cooperation with Maharashtra.

Harvest and post-harvest technologies, digital technologies and film production & distribution are the three three prominent sectors identified by Poolpipat as focus areas for collaboration between both the countries.

According to Poolpipat, there were excellent possibilities of cooperation in wine production, dry fruits and dairy processing and production, with value addition.

WTC Mumbai would serve as an ideal partner in the coming years to build a strong India-Thailand trade relationship, expressed Poolpipat.

Ambit Capital Private Limited, Asset Management, Siddhartha Rastogi, highlighted that both Thailand and Maharashtra excel in key areas such as textiles, automobiles, food processing, fisheries and sea trade. While Thailand is a front-runner in technologies, India offers superior quality labour force.

According to Rastogi, technology of Thailand could be combined with the superior labour resource of Maharashtra to build global brands for products and services.  

He also identified several key areas where both India and Thailand could cooperate successfully.

For instance, in the sector of computer and information technology, Maharashtra excels in IT-enabled, while Thailand has the core competence in manufacture of IT hardware. This could open up excellent possibilities for cooperation in the IT sector with Thailand offering hardware components and combining those with the software capabilities in Maharashtra.

Further, in the automotive sector of Maharashtra, Thailand could bring in their expertise in robotics technology.

Rastogi emphasized that, for both Thailand and Maharashtra an area of challenge is waste disposal. With Maharashtra’s speedy urbanization, there are excellent opportunities for cooperation in the sector of waste treatment and disposal.

MVIRDC World Trade Centre Mumbai, Senior Director, Rupa Naik, earlier in her welcome address mentioned that, there is great scope for cooperation between India and Thailand, particularly in areas such as food processing in order to reduce post-harvest wastage.

Bilateral trade between India and Thailand stood at USD 10.79 billion in 2017-18 and Naik hoped that this could be doubled in the next five years.

For the benefit of trade and industry in Maharashtra, Naik urged Poolpipat to organize an exhibition at World Trade Centre Mumbai to showcase Thailand’s innovative manufacturing technologies.