1.  The First Meeting of the Republic of Korea-Thailand Committee on Economic Cooperation was held on March 22, 2016 in Seoul in conjunction with the official visit to the Republic of Korea by His Excellency Mr. Somkid Jatusripitak, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand.

Co-chaired by His Excellency Mr. Ilho Yoo, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance of the Republic of Korea, and His Excellency Mr. Somkid Jatusripitak, the Meeting was attended by economic high-level officials from both sides covering trade, investment, science and technology, ICT, tourism and culture.

2.  Noting the common goal of achieving strong and sustainable growth, both sides expressed their support for each country’s policy direction, through the Committee, namely; Special Economic Zones (SEZ), Super Clusters, and Digital Economy carried out under the New S-Curve policy by the Thai side; and the Three-Year Economic Innovation Plan that includes Creative Economy implemented by the Korean side. In a bid to promote mutually-beneficial economic cooperation backed by the innovation-driven growth strategy, both sides decided to launch a Blueprint for Korea - Thailand New Economic Cooperation Initiatives which is the action plan for implementing three strategic cooperation areas, namely;

(1) Cooperation on Thailand’s infrastructure development projects: The Korean side evaluated that Thailand’s implementation of the infrastructure development projects including water management, rail, satellite and smart city will greatly contribute to creating higher quality of growth and sustainability in the country. The Thai side welcomed Korea’s interest and possible participation in the aforementioned projects based on its advanced science and technology and ICT capabilities which could pave the way for successfully running the projects.

(2) Cooperation on trade promotion: Reaffirming the importance of working towards bilateral and regional trade promotion, both sides agreed to hold the Republic of Korea - Thailand Joint Trade Commission (JTC), in due course, to seek ways and means to further facilitate the flow of goods and services. They agreed to make every effort to double the bilateral trade volume within five years. Both sides also agreed to pursue discussion on measures to actively utilize trade agreements such as Korea-ASEAN FTA.

(3) Cooperation on culture, tourism and people-to-people exchanges: Acknowledging that mutual exchanges driven by cultural contents and tourism   have served as the cornerstone for promoting deeper understanding and economic cooperation between the two countries, both sides agreed to continuously facilitate exchanges of contents and personnel, and make concerted efforts to increase positive knock-on effect on boosting trade and investment in related industries in the future.

In order to implement the aforesaid cooperation initiatives, both sides decided tน set up a working group between the Ministry of Strategy and Finance of the Republic   of Korea and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand. Both sides also agreed to establish and operate working level consultative bodies between relevant agencies, where appropriate, on a regular basis.

3.  Both sides agreed to meet again to review progress made under this Committee at its second meeting to be held in Thailand at a mutually convenient date.