Taipei, Jan. 8 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian pitched Wednesday for the early signing of a judicial cooperation agreement and a free trade accord with Thailand to further boost bilateral exchanges.
Chen made the appeal while meeting with a delegation of parliamentarians and young business executives from Thailand headed by Wittaya Masayna, chairman of the Thai Senate Science, Technology and Energy Committee.
Despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties, Chen said, substantive ties between the Republic of China and Thailand are close and cordial.
Over the years, he went on, Taiwan has invested more than US$10.5 billion in Thailand, making it the third-largest source of foreign capital for the Southeast Asian nation. Bilateral trade exceeds US$4.3 billion and ROC citizens make more than 680,000 visits to Thailand annually. "All these figures point to thriving relations between our two countries, " Chen told his guests, adding his hope that the two countries can sign a free trade agreement in the near future to further promote bilateral trade, investment and economic cooperation.
After a 10-year hiatus, Chen said, Taiwan and Thailand finally resumed ministerial-level trade and economic cooperation conferences last November when ROC Economics Minister Lin Yi-fu led a high-level mission to Bangkok. "We hope other Southeast Asian countries can follow Thailand's lead in resuming annual ministerial-level dialogue with the ROC for mutual benefit," Chen said.
More than 100,000 Thai citizens are now legally working in Taiwan. "They have not only contributed to Taiwan's economic development but have also helped increase their own country's foreign exchange revenues," Chen said, adding that the two countries signed a direct labor employment agreement last December to better protect Thai workers from being exploited by manpower agents.
As a number of Thai citizens are serving time in Taiwan prisons and some ROC nationals are jailed in Thailand, Chen said the two countries should also sign a bilateral judicial cooperation pact to pave the way for exchanges of prison inmates.