BANGKOK, Sept 30 (TNA) — The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan will soon lead Japanese businesspeople to explore investment opportunities in Thailand, Industry Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said.
The minister said that last week he visited Japan to invite its investments and during the trip representatives of METI agreed to pay a visit together with Japanese investors in the near future. They would go to various potential investment locations including the Eastern Economic Corridor, Mr Suriya said.
METI also promised to encourage Japanese operators to invest in automation and robots in Thailand.
In the same trip, Mr Suriya met Atsushi Toyonaga, chairman of Japan’s Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation (SMRJ). They discussed joint promotion for small and medium-sized enterprises and agreed to double the Thai-Japanese SME matching. Past SME matching between both countries resulted in investment worth more than 300 million baht, Mr Suriya said.
On the same occasion, executives of the Thai Industry Ministry and Japan-Thailand Economic Cooperation Society (JTECS) signed a memorandum of understanding to promote automation and robotic industries and the use of robots in Thailand and to develop system integrators. The Industry Ministry planned to develop 1,400 system integrators in four years, Mr Suriya said. (TNA)