BANGKOK, 2 August 2013 According to the Foreign Ministry, Thailand and China are planning to relax visa rules to facilitate increased travel between the two countries.
The visa waiver is expected to boost tourism in the region after Japan earlier allowed Thai nationals to travel to the country without visas. The Japanese government has set a goal to increase the number of visitors from Southeast Asia to 2 million in 2016.
The Bank of Thailand has also expressed interest in using Yuan as a trading currency between the two nations in place of US dollar. China has so far agreed with the BOT’s proposal and will set up meetings with representatives from both central banks.
China already has agreements with Russia, Vietnam and Japan allowing trade to be settled in yuan instead of dollars. An HSBC forecast projected that by 2015, the yuan will become one of the three most used currencies in global trade, in league with the dollar and euro.
