Bilateral trade between Thailand and India has multiplied six times
since 2000 and it has crossed six billion US dollars. Trade data for
January-June 2010 reveals that bilateral trade is 3.23 billion dollars,
an increase of 53 per cent over the corresponding figure last year.
This was stated by Mr. R. R. Kulkarni, Deputy General Manager College
of Agriculture Banking, Pune, India during the inauguration of the
eight day “International exposure on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise
(MSMSE) Financing” held at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) on
27 October 2010.
Mr. Kulkarni revealed that Indian foreign direct investment in
Thailand was 287 million dollars in 2008, while Thailand had invested
65 million dollars in India. He complemented the government of Thailand
for ensuring that Medium and Small Enterprises get their due place in
the economy. An estimated 40 per cent of the GDP and 75 per cent of job
opportunities come from small and medium sized enterprises in Thailand,
he added. He thanked AIT Extension for organizing the program and
remarked that this is the third cohort which has arrived from India.
“Going by experience, we will continue to have more such programs,” he
added.
Dr. Jonathan Shaw, Director, AIT Extension, while welcoming the
participants, stated that AIT is an international organization which
acts as a clearing house of knowledge of what is happening in Asia. Dr.
Faiz Shah, Head, Development Management, AIT Extension, stated that the
program has been designed keeping in view to provide the participants
with due exposure to the industry both in Thailand and Malaysia. Ms.
Rowena Alcoba, Program Officer, AIT Extension stated that senior
officials from 16 banks and financial institutions from India were
participating in the program.
The program was also covered by the newspaper
Business Line.