THAILAND, LAOS TO SIGN CONTRACT FARMING MOU
Thailand will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Laos next week for agricultural cooperation under a contract-farming scheme to supply produce from Laos to the Thai market, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday. The signing would take place on the sidelines of the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya – Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) summit in Vientiane, from Monday to Wednesday.
Under the MOU signed by the two countries’ foreign ministers, Thailand will support the agricultural sector in Laos and offer tax incentives for its imported farm products, according to director of International Economic Affairs Chutintorn Gongsakdi. The contract will cover trade items in demand on the Thai market, such as corn and beans, he said.
Contract farming is an agricultural scheme in which buyers sign contracts to buy certain products in specific quantities from farmers. The Thai private sector has invested in contract farming in Laos for more than 10 years. The MOU will formally endorse the cooperation between the two countries.
During the summit, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will meet with her counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to discuss cooperating on trading mechanisms to address the decline in Thai rice exports, due to poor management at home, even as rice exports from the four neighbouring countries are increasing.
Participants at the ACMECS summit will also discuss regional cooperation to bridge development gaps, measures to increase competitiveness, and the development of infrastructure for regional connectivity in order to bring the countries in the Mekong basin closer together for Asean Economic Community’s launch in 2015, Chutintorn said.
Established in 2003, the ACMECS covers cooperation among five countries in mainland Southeast Asia in the sectors of infrastructure development, trade and investment, industry, public health, tourism, agriculture and human resource development. The summit next week in Laos will endorse an action plan for 2013-2015.
From :THE NATION
