| PM to sign many agreements in China
He was delivering his keynote speech at the Bangkok Bank Knowledge Talk series. Li Zhimin, former chairman of the supervisory board of large state-owned enterprises under the State Council, said private enterprises and individual businesses in China have grown quickly in the 30 years after China opened its economy. He said the Chinese government planned to achieve gross domestic product growth of 7. He said the number of state-owned enterprises presently is less than one-twentieth of the total businesses. He also projected that Chinese tourists coming to Thailand this year may reach 2 million, following 1. China will also create domestic demand as it would make economic growth more sustainable, he said. It may be lower when compared with the previous growth rates of more than 9 per cent over the past 30 years, he said. He explained that a lower growth rate is needed as the government wants to improve the quality of growth and make it sustainable. The railroad is about 1,000 kilometres, which isn't very long when compared with projects in China, he said. Chinese visitors could rise to between 4 million and 5 million in the next five to 10 years, as Chinese are getting richer, he said. He said he had learned from top Thai officials that the government wants to start investments in the high-speed rail project this year. "In the next 10 to 15 years Thailand would have road and railroad connectivity with neighbouring countries. "Thailand also is going to buy 800,000 [computer] tablets from China. He said China is confident of catching up with the US in the next 10 to 15 years in terms of economic size as some research houses have predicted. If so, the main high-speed line is likely to be carried out within five years, the ambassador said. The two sides are also discussing investments in high-speed rail lines: Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Bangkok to Nong Khai, Bangkok to Rayong and Bangkok to Padang Besar, he said. Meanwhile, Xiang Siying, executive director of CDH Investment, said the private equity market in China was still a very small segment but it is growing very fast. |
Saturday 31 March 2012
PM to sign many agreements in China
