Thai-Indonesia trade relations have been strengthened

BANGKOK APRIL, 24 2011 (NNT)- Thailand’s Deputy Minister of Commerce Alongkorn Ponlaboot affirmed to the House of Representatives that a trade agreement had been reached between Thailand and Indonesia.

The Deputy Commerce Minister said the agreement was expected to strengthen Thai-Indonesian relations and the existing strong bilateral cooperation between the two nations to reduce any trading barrier between the public and private sectors of both countries. Hence. this would increase trades of Thailand and Indonesia in line with the government’s policy of expanding exports to ASEAN market in preparation for ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)’s goal.

Indonesia as the biggest market in ASEAN, with over 240 million population, or half of the ASEAN market is the third trading partner of Thailand, followed by Malaysia and Singapore. As for the statistics of Thailand-Indonesia bilateral trades over the past three years,the average annual value was $ 13.02 billion, which now increased by 53.79 percent , with Thailand gaining a surplus of over $1.67 billion.

Major exports from Thailand to Indonesia are car parts and components, granulated sugar, machinery and parts, chemicals and polymers, while imports are metal products, coal, crude oil, machinery and parts as well as chemicals.