Thailand-Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia-Myanmar Business Forum 2023

This event creates opportunities for connection and trade cooperation between businesses in 5 Southeast Asian countries.

The forum was organized by the Thai-Vietnamese Business Association in collaboration with the Overseas Vietnamese Business Association. Attending this year's business forum were Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Phan Chi Thanh; Vietnamese Consul General in Khon Kaen Chu Duc Dung; Mr. Nguyen Manh Dong, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, and about 300 delegates representing the Udon Thani provincial government; representatives of the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos; Vietnamese businesses and overseas Vietnamese businesses in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Speaking at the forum, Ambassador Phan Chi Thanh highly appreciated the efforts of the Thai-Vietnamese Business Association in supporting the connection of businesses from the five countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. The Ambassador affirmed that the forum is a turning point in the development of the successes from investment, trade and tourism promotion activities in 2022 that overseas Vietnamese businesses in Thailand have conducted in some localities of Vietnam. In addition, Ambassador Phan Chi Thanh emphasized that the forum is a suitable and effective connection channel for businesses to deploy cooperation opportunities in the future.

Ambassador Phan Chi Thanh also said that Vietnam and Thailand are each other's leading economic partners in the region as well as in the world. In terms of trade, Thailand is Vietnam's largest trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 9th largest investor in Vietnam. Two-way trade turnover in 2022 reached 20.51 billion USD and will soon reach the target of 25 billion USD in the near future.

According to Mr. Ho Van Lam, Chairman of the Thai-Vietnamese Business Association in Thailand, the 2023 Thailand-Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia-Myanmar Business Forum is a place for product exhibitions, trade promotion, and technology exchange, aiming to share experiences, enhance trade, exchange, connect and form networks between Vietnamese enterprises with Thai, Lao, Cambodian and Myanmar enterprises as well as enterprises of member countries of the Overseas Vietnamese Business Association, in the fields of agriculture, tourism, services, high technology, export and finance.

In addition, the forum also introduces and promotes Vietnam's investment and business environment, promotes the export of Vietnamese goods to countries in the region; at the same time, contributes to realizing the Government's Project on "Mobilizing Vietnamese people abroad to participate in introducing, consuming products and developing distribution channels for Vietnamese goods abroad, period 2020-2024". Mr. Duong Dinh Bang, Chairman of the Association of Vietnamese Enterprises in Laos (AVILA) assessed that a forum like this not only creates opportunities for connection and experience sharing among participating businesses but also helps to elevate Vietnamese brands.

Within the framework of the forum, businesses signed cooperation agreements, thereby actively contributing to consolidating and improving the effectiveness of economic cooperation among the five countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

According to the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, to date there have been nearly 400 investment projects by overseas Vietnamese returning to the country with a registered capital of about 1.72 billion USD.