EXIM Thailand Inks MOU with Hong Kong Trade Development Counci
EXIM Thailand Inks MOU with Hong Kong Trade Development Council to Foster Thailand-Hong Kong Trade and Investment
Mr. Julapan Amornvivat, Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter K N Lam, Chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), and Ms. Margaret Fong, Executive Director of HKTDC, served as honorary witnesses in the signing ceremony of the third iteration of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at ongoing entrepreneur development between Dr. Rak Vorrakitpokatorn, President of the Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Thailand), and Ms. Sophia Chong, Deputy Executive Director of HKTDC, at the HKTDC Headquarters in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China on February 22, 2024.
The MOU aims to strengthen collaboration between EXIM Thailand and HKTDC to enhance support for entrepreneurs in both Thailand and Hong Kong, thereby boosting their competitiveness across economic, trade, and investment sectors. This encompasses collaboration across various areas, including partnering with public and private sector entities to fulfill the missions of EXIM Thailand and HKTDC in fostering trade and investment between Thailand and Hong Kong. It involves activities such as business matching, offering incentives to streamline the online distribution of Thai entrepreneurs’ products, and sharing information on potential entrepreneurs who could become clients of EXIM Thailand and HKTDC. This facilitates access to financial services and export credit and investment insurance facilities for Thai and Hong Kong entrepreneurs.
At present, Thailand and Hong Kong have a Free Trade Agreement under the ASEAN-Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement (AHKFTA), which came into effect in February 2021. Under AHKFTA, Hong Kong exempts import duties on goods from all ASEAN countries, including Thailand, and commits not to impose import duties on all goods under the agreement in the future. Hong Kong is a significant trading partner for Thailand, ranking 13th in 2023 with a total trade value of 13.7 billion USD, accounting for 2.4% of Thailand’s total trade. Major exports from Thailand to Hong Kong include gems and jewelry, printed circuit board, computers, telephone sets and parts, and internal combustion engines. Conversely, Thailand’s key imports from Hong Kong consist of gems and jewelry, electrical machinery, machinery and parts, metal ores and scrap. Furthermore, Hong Kong serves as a crucial destination for direct investment from Thailand, ranking as the top source of Thai direct investment (TDI) with an accumulated value of 26.5 billion USD as of the third quarter of 2023. In 2022, the outflow of TDI to Hong Kong amounted to 2.6 billion USD, placing Hong Kong as the fifth-largest recipient of Thai direct investment, following Singapore, the United States, Japan, and Mauritius. Thai investors in Hong Kong are active in various sectors, including finance and banking, insurance, retail and wholesale trade, and food and beverage. Meanwhile, Hong Kong investors entering the Thai market focus on logistics, electronics, and digital industries.
