On 24 April 2014, H.E. Mr. Tharit Charungvat, Ambassador of Thailand, met with Mr. Ekrem Demirtas, President of the Izmir Chamber of Commerce (IZTO). Both agreed to work closely with each other in order to boost trade and investment cooperation.      

H.E. Mr. Charungvat mentioned that the purposes of his visit to Izmir were to explore potentials of Izmir in order to expand cooperation between Thailand and Izmir.   In H.E. the Ambassador’s opinion meeting with business sectors is one of the most effective ways to obtain such information.

H.E. the Ambassador also gave a brief overview on the bilateral trade relations between Thailand and Turkey that the value of trade between Thailand and Turkey in 2013 was 1.43 billion US Dollars of which Thailand had the trade surplus of 1 billion US Dollars, reflecting vast untapped potentials in trade and investment to be unlocked by Thailand and Turkey. Moreover, in 2015, the ASEAN Economic Community will come into effect. Thailand, located at the heart of ASEAN, will be a strategic gateway to the single market and production base of 600 million people. Therefore, Thailand could serve as a business bridge and gateway for Turkish investors to Southeast Asia.

Realizing the potential of cooperation between Thailand and Turkey, both sides agreed to work closely to increase trade and investment figures between the two countries.