During 19 – 23 September 2022, the Royal Thai Embassy organized a Thai business delegation’s visit to 3 Northeastern states of India – Assam, Meghalaya, and Manipur. The delegation was led by H.E. the Ambassador of Thailand to India and comprised of the business delegation from Thailand’s Chamber of Commerce & Board of Trade, Chamber of Commerce of the Tak Province, representatives from Young Entrepreneur Chamber of Commerce (YEC) and Thai private sector already invested in India. Also accompanied the delegation were officials from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand in-charge of India, both at the director-level and the working level. The purpose of the tour is to familiarize the Thai private sector with the Northeastern states of India in lieu of (1) India’s Act East policy and Thailand’s Look West, which aim to rejuvenate the region with fresh development projects and foreign investment incentives (2) their close-proximity with ASEAN and Thailand, with possible linkages through India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and sea linkages through the Bay of Bengal and (3) the cultural linkages between the people of the region and the people of Thailand. The tour aims to be a catalyst to utilize these enablers to open new economic opportunities for investment and deepening of trade relations with the region.

During the 5-day tour in 3 states, H.E. the Ambassador have led the delegation to call on the Chief Ministers of Assam and Manipur and their economic-focused Ministers. These courtesy calls were extremely helpful for the delegation to get the glimpse of policy direction of each state and their focus areas, as well as to be able to network with the right officials within the respective state governments. The tour also took part in various economic-related initiatives of each state, such as the Northeastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFI), Assam Skill Development Mission (ASDM), the Border Integrated Check-Post at Moreh, along the Burmese border, to name a few. There were also academic aspects to the tour as well, in which the delegation have had the opportunity to exchange ideas on how to improve logistics within the region with the Asian Confluence, and to be able to exchange business ideas and to network with leading local business leaders in all the 3 states, organized in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).

Apart from economic-focused issues, H.E. the Ambassador also held discussion with the Chief Ministers to advance development cooperation with the region. In the case of Assam, for example, the two sides aimed to initiate an exchange of the experts as well as know-how in the field of agriculture, textiles, and tourism management in the form of brief courses in each country, and in the case of Manipur, the focus is on the training of Thai language to open new opportunities for locals of Manipur to study and work in Thailand, as well as in labour managemenr, skill and healthcare development.