PM Yingluck gave an interview on the result of her first state visit to Papua New Guinea that a setup of a joint working committee was agreed at the bilateral discussion with the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea as a coordination mechanism in order to follow up on cooperation between the two countries on such area as natural gas where Papua New Guinea welcomed investments from Thailand.
On agricultural products, cooperation on processed agricultural products will be initiated as Papua New Guinea has obtained tariff preferences in exporting to the 3rd countries, and this could be Thailand’s extra channel for the export of Thai products.
As for the cooperation on rice, Papua New Guinean people apparently love Thai rice, and Thai rice import to Papua New Guinea will be promoted.
Furthermore, both parties also agreed on cooperation on fishery, construction industry, and academic assistance particularly on Thailand’s area of expertise such as tourism development to encourage people connectivity. Bilateral discussion also included the issues of relaxation of visa, mutual trade and investment facilitation, and tariff redundancy. Thailand and Papua New Guinea also set to continuously increase mutual trade value by 15%.