We are now looking at India for the next 10 years: H.E. Mr. Chalit Manityakul
We are now looking at India for the next 10 years: H.E. Mr. Chalit Manityakul, Ambassador of Thailand to India
In an interview with Business Digest (BD), Mr. Chalit Manityakul, the Ambassador of Thailand to India (Amb), speaks about the economic complementarities and opportunities for businesses of the two countries, the need for greater connectivity and strengthening of business linkages.
BD. Thailand offers a spectacular success story of its emergence to middle income country. Please share the success story and give us your views on the ways that Thailand and India which is on a strong growth path also, can forge stronger economic linkages.
Amb. Let me share with yousomething on the background of the Thai economy. Traditionally, we are an agricultural based society so we produce food which is enough to supply for our own people and we have a big surplus for exports. That is our strong point of the economy. Recently we were focusing much on the exports and we have not had a balance of exports and domestic consumption. We realised if we rely too much on exports and if something happens even in Thailand or anywhere else in the world, we are seriously affected by those situations.
The Government is doing something on this front, our GDP growth is increasing which means we are on the right track of economic development of our country. We are trying to do something to have more balance between exports and domestic consumption and manufacturing. We are doing it in the way of having clusters for manufacturing and production. We would have clusters along the border areas to cope with the ASEAN Economic Community which will be one single market. Besides that cluster we also have special clusters which will serve as start-up business and the production may need labour intensive manufacturing. We will also have in the meantime super cluster which will have focus on some high technology production like a digital hub economy, innovation and there will be quite a number of incentives in those clusters around the border areas and also the super clusters. We can share that experience with India.
Apart from that, the current Government in Thailand has injected huge amount of budget into the local economy to create work and employment and the people can earn from this. Infrastructure is also another main factor if you want to develop your economy. You cannot transport the products from the local villages to the market or even from anywhere across the provinces in Thailand to the other side of the country or from the site to the port. That is very important facility and we have been trying to improve and upgrade our infrastructure. That is one of the reasons why we are now successful in improving our economy.
BD. The economic agendabetween India and Thailand is assuming prominence against the backdrop of growing governmental engagements and we understand that Thai firms see greater business opportunities amid the strong growth of Indian economy. At this stage do you see many complementarities with India which can help build strong synergies?
Amb. Of course the political andsecurity aspects will be there. How to cope with cybercrime, how to expand our cooperation. We are having a big business sector to come along with the Prime Minister. Maybe one or two days ahead of this visit. There will be also some business seminars, also the first of its kind event which has been pending for a few years - the India-Thailand Business Forum. It is the venue where the business sector of the two sides – India and Thailand will come and meet and discuss ways and means how to expand our trade and investment for the future. They will talk about the roadmap to increase the trade volume and investment in each country and the seminar itself will have something to showcase to each other – what is Thailand now, where is India now and the success story of Thai business in India and success story of Indian business in Thailand.
We know India is Taj Mahal, Kashmir, Bodh Gaya. India may also look at Thailand as a Buddhist country with nice people and food. We need stronger linkages to plug the gaps in our information about each other. I have been here the second time. My first posting was in the eighties, in fact 1982. I came back at the end of 2013. After a gap of 30 years. I saw what was still missing and what we have already filled in and how India has advanced. But sometimes those pictures and images that we conjure up are not updated. We need to fill in the lacunae. I want to encourage our businesses on both sides to enhance the information level on both sides and fill in the gap.
In terms of complementarities, we have similar societies. Both are agriculture based countries and we can share a lot of experiences in innovation. Like the start-up policy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi we have also in our country incentives for start-ups. We can collaborate on this. India has launched the Make in India, Diamond Quadrilateral project. Both the countries are moving in the right direction already.
BD. India and Thailand havevowed to deepen their bilateral defence relationship during the Indian Air Chief Marshal to Thailand last year. Which are the core interest areas for India and Thailand?
Amb. There are in the pipeline anumber of task force and security consultations in all military sectors. Thailand was a participant in the naval parade organised in the southern part of India and pretty soon India will participate in the naval parade in Thailand. So many activities are in the pipeline like the White Shipping MoU. It is now on my side now to conclude the internal process on this. Also Make in India offers scope for cooperation in the defence sector. In March this year during the India visit of Thailand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, there were quite a number of discussions with India's national security adviser and your Defence Minister. There were some discussions on Defence weaponry. Some Indian companies had met with our Deputy PM. So we are looking at some cooperation and some military purchases. I hope that they would be concluded successfully.
BD. There is obviously muchmore to our growing ties - from pharmaceuticals to infrastructure are also some sectors that India is keen to use to attract partnerships between India and Thailand. What is your view?
Amb. They are indeed bigopportunities. I would like to share with you the occasion when the Hon'ble Vice President of India visited Thailand in February this year and met Thailand's Prime Minister. The cooperation in pharmaceutical area will be most welcome for the Thai Government. We would welcome Indian investment to produce some pharmaceutical products. We are entering the ASEAN Economic Community. Indian investors can think of setting up a factory in Thailand which is a land hub for ASEAN countries. You can produce the medicine and then use the available schemes to enter the ASEAN markets.
I am glad when I first heard about the smart cities and Diamond Quadrilateral. I have been telling the Thai companies investing in India that this is really good and ample opportunity to come to India. In the meantime, India is in the process of upgrading your laws and regulations on the investment front under the DIPP and the Niti Aayog under Mr Amitabh Kant. He is doing a marvellous job. It is a win-win situation. Construction, housing, food processing companies are already operating in India. When my colleagues in Thailand ask me what kind of products and investments I can encourage them to come I point to the government's policies like Make in India, Digital India, Smart Cities. I am telling my Government also that these are very good initiatives and appropriate time for Thai businesses to come to India. We have also had Thai companies invest in India in building the Kolkata Airport and companies which are producing some frozen sea food, hatcheries factory, chicken, poultry and eggs. They have been here for more than 20 years. They are very stable now and expanding.
BD. India, Thailand, andMyanmar are working on a 1,400-kilometre long highway that will link India with Southeast Asia by land for the first time in decades. How will this project impact the three countries and the region?
Amb. The completion of thisproject has been delayed by a few years but it is very much coming. Negotiations on the customs aspect and the traffic regulations are under way. More or less it will be happening in the course of a few years from now. That will increase the land contact between the three countries. Trade is there already along that land transport route. When I visited Moreh and Tamu in Manipur I have seen a lot of products from Thailand and from some other countries. So this project will enhance border trade volume and the people-to-people connections. There are still some parts of the trilateral highway to be upgraded in the next few years.
But it is not just the land links only. We are talking about the air linkages. The “Look West” policy of Thailand and “Act East” Policy of India can find great convergence by land, by air by sea. By air, now I think we have quite a number of air links between New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore with Thailand. Still I am trying to introduce some more air links between the northern part of Thailand, Chiang Mai and India's North East region like Guwahati, Imphal plus one destination in India like Varanasi, Bodh Gaya where many Thai pilgrims have been coming to India. The number of people visiting Bodh Gaya and Buddhist circuit each year I think is more than what the commercial capacity of Indian and Thai airlines can cope with. I have seen so many charter flights from Thailand – sometimes three to four flights a day - during the peak period of October to March.
This north connection – Chiang Mai and India's North-east plus Bodh Gaya and Varanasi will also support people-to-people connect. We don't have enough seats in that direct route but we can have some additional seats for Chiang Mai, Bodh Gaya back via Guwahati to Bangkok. So the people from Chiang Mai don't have to come to Bangkok. They can come directly from the northern part of Thailand to Varanasi or Bodh Gaya. Then your airline can pick up someone from Bodh Gaya or Varanasi on way to your north east region and then people from Guwahati or anywhere in north east can go to Chiang Mai. People on both sides already share many similarities of language and this commonality will enhance people to people linkages.
BD.Thailand could be an ablepartner in the development of the Buddhist circuit which is planned as India's first trans-national tourist circuit. There is opportunity for private players to come up with infrastructure development around the sites and also in increasing the connectivity especially air. What are your views on this?
Amb. I would like to thank theIndian friends who have been visiting Thailand for the last three-four years. We have also been coming to India, Bodh Gaya, Taj Mahal. But still I believe that if we can focus on the infrastructure even outside the Buddhist Circuit that will very much boost number of Thai pilgrims and also pilgrims from any other Buddhist countries. Last year I completed making a pilgrimage in this circuit. I have to say that it is quite a long period to complete the circuit because of the infrastructure problems. Sometimes it took us more than 12 hours to cover a distance of 200 km. That is something that needs to be considered seriously. For some sectors the roads are good, but for many remaining part, there needs to be some upgrading of the roads to attract income for the country and attract tourists. Sometimes entrepreneurs and investor is coming for construction of five star hotels, you have to tell them also about the advantages of coming here. It will benefit both of us if instead of just the peak season, we can encourage tourists to come to all year round.
BD. The bilateral trade betweenIndia and Thailand has grown significantly. One believes India could do better as a trading partner of Thailand. What are the some of the major challenges or hindrances for improved flow of trade between India and Thailand?
Amb. We can do much betterthan the volume we are doing now. I have been here for two years and a half already but the trade volume and even the investments are not increasing at all. Clear understanding between the two sides is very much required. Thailand is not the country for tourism, food but there is a lot more to us. India is of course huge and you have a lot of resources and opportunities for investors to come. The Government sectors from both sides will have to support our business linkages, introduce India in Thailand and introduce Thailand to India.
Next year we are going to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic relations. I think we can use of this occasion to do some roadshow for our two business groups. You can go to Thailand regularly and we should come here regularly. I have spoken to the Federation of Thai industry and they also support my idea. They will try to come here every quarter and India should do likewise. The main hindrance is the lack of understanding and knowledge for the counterparts. I know business people will come everywhere they see opportunities and income. But if they do not have clear view and picture about their counterparts in other country, they don't come. So we have to bridge this gap between the chambers, government sectors on both sides.
BD. At a broader level, India andthe ASEAN have come a long way. How can Thailand help in deeper regional integration?
Amb. Thailand has introducedour investment initiative of “Coming to Thailand plus one”. So we will facilitate any foreign investment. We have bilateral trade - Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore India. We have ASEAN-India FTA already and we have on-going negotiation with India on India-Thailand FTA. My Government is very serious about it and when we have that kind of FTA it will facilitate our business linkages. That is for our two countries and for Thailand as a hub which India can make use of to get access into ASEAN easily.
BD. Can you share yourexperiences in India as Ambassador? What is your vision for future of India-Thailand ties?
Amb. My most fond memories ofIndia is attached to the image of India as the land of Buddhism. There is a spiritual connection. As a Buddhist I am most happy when I visited those Buddhist places in India. I can feel that Lord Buddha is everywhere, especially under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya or in Sarnath where he gave the first sermon and in Kushinara where he passed into Nirvana. So I can feel the strength and energy of Lord Buddha strongly. It is an honour of my life to have been assigned for my first posting in India and this is going to be the last. Being ambassador to any country is fine for me but being the first young diplomat and the Ambassador to India as my last posting is something very unique. It is very rare that anybody can have this kind of privilege. For the future of India-Thailand relations, we are now looking at India for the next 10 years. Also under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi we have to work fast and we have to look far.
**FICCI Business Digest spoke to the Ambassador just ahead of the arrival of the Prime Minister of Thailand to India
