BANGKOK, 15 October 2013 The cabinet has approved the composition of a Thai panel in the Thailand-Vietnam Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) to be set up to strengthen strategic partnership.
Proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Thai composition comprises Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul as chairman and 38 other high-ranking officials of the ministry as members of the commission.
Thailand and Vietnam have agreed to elevate bilateral relations to the level of strategic partnership. The agreement was confirmed in talks held in Bangkok in June between visiting General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The two leaders pledged to boost two-way trade to US$15 billion in 2020 from over $8.6 billion last year.
Thailand is the ninth biggest investor in Vietnam with 313 projects worth $6.4 billion.
