Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham, the UK Minister for Trade and Investment met with Thailand Prime Minister Samak Sundarvej and Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sansuwan in Bangkok this week

Some very interesting points were raised to assist the trade development between these two countries who have had friendly a friendly relationship for decades

“Thailand has to be attractive as much as possible at a time when countries like China, India and Vietnam are on the increase”

“Thailand should have as few regulations as possible on retail business and allow us to grow our business here”

“Thailand is among five high growth East Asian markets that British firms are focusing on, but Thailand should do more to usher in a free market”

“Thailand should liberalise the financial sector to deal with globalization”

“Thailand is among our locations of choice in Southeast Asia.”

Quoted Lord Jones.

Great Britain has a number of well established companies in manufacture and retail trade

Retail Business
• 450 – Tesco Stores
• 150 – Boots Shops

Banking Sector
• HSBC
• Standard Chartered Bank

Energy Sector
• British Gas

Airline Sector
• Rolls Royce

Motorcycle Manufacture
• Triumph have 2 plants for building motorcycles and have a 3rd plant set to come on line shortly

Lord Jones made some other valid and necessary remarks

“The high potential businesses for UK firms in Thailand are trading, financial services, education, aerospace, and automotive products, pharmaceuticals and life sciences”

Raising concern about the Thailand Compulsory Licensing (CL) levied against patented drugs

“We firmly believe there are considerable advantages to be gained from constructive and open dialogue between government and the patent holders” expressed Lord Jones