Ministerial Keynote
by His Excellency Dr. Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara,
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand
at the Hong Kong-ASEAN Summit 2023
Monday, 9 October 2023 at 10.00 – 10.20 hrs., Conrad Hotel, Hong Kong

Honourable John Lee Ka-Chiu,

Excellencies,

Distinguished participants,

Ladies and gentlemen,

First, my sincere thanks to the SCMP for the kind invitation and warm hospitality extended to me to be here with all of you this morning. After the world seemed to have stood still during the pandemic, most countries and cities are slowly getting back onto their feet. In this light, I’m heartened to see that Hong Kong has bounced back to her vibrant and bustling self in no time. I believe our presence here today at this Summit speaks to the confidence we all have in the future of Hong Kong and Hong Kong and ASEAN.

Let me paint a few ways in which ASEAN and Hong Kong can work together towards a common future together. As the 4th leading global financial centre, the largest offshore Renminbi clearing Centre--with the share of 74 per cent of the world's Renminbi payments, and the stock market that is ranked 4th largest in Asia, ASEAN should look to Hong Kong as more than a gateway to China. Rather, Hong Kong is a major international investment destination in and of itself.

Likewise, Hong Kong should see the economic potentials ASEAN can complement Hong Kong’s strengths. As a large market and strong regional integration, ASEAN remains a major FDI destination in the developing world–second only to China. ASEAN is also expected to play an important role in driving global economic recovery. Indeed, FDI inflows rebounded in 2021 to 174 billion US dollars, a return to pre-pandemic level, reflecting the attractiveness of the ASEAN region for global investors.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, dubbed as the world’s largest free trade agreement that accounts for around 30 per cent of the world’s GDP and over a quarter of global trade, came into force in January last year. This arrangement between ASEAN and its five main regional trading partners, namely China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, is the latest evolution of ASEAN economic integration. In addition, the total trade between Hong Kong and the 15 RCEP members in 2022 amounted to around 860 billion US dollars. That represents over 70 per cent of Hong Kong's total trade. As such, Thailand welcomes and supports Hong Kong’s formal application to the RCEP. We look forward to working closely with Hong Kong toward this end.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thailand and Hong Kong have had long-standing economic ties and people-to-people connectivity. Many Thai companies have made successful investment in Hong Kong with Big C Retail being the latest iteration. Thailand also stands to benefit from exchanges of technical co-operation with Hong Kong, especially in the field of medical technology and other advanced economic sectors. Seeing Hong Kong in all her vibrant glory also makes me hopeful that the flight connectivity between Thailand and Hong Kong will return to pre-pandemic level of more than 30 flights per day in the near future.

On digital economy, the e-commerce market in this region was worth around 62 billion US dollars in 2020. This is expected to almost triple to 172 billion US dollars by 2025. Yet, the potential is nowhere near fulfilled. As we aim to embrace digital economy, currently accounting for only 7 per cent of the GDP in our region, we need to lay down the requisite infrastructure. E-commerce needs other services, such as FinTech, digital payments, and data processing to continue its growth. In 2021, Thailand’s PromptPay and Singapore’s PayNow made the world’s first real time payment linkage, enabling swift and safe cross-border money transfer between the two countries, with many ASEAN countries following suit. For Hong Kong, the Bank of Thailand and its Hong Kong counterpart are in the process of linking the payment system between the two sides through Thailand’s PromptPay and Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System.
ASEAN is also launching the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement or DEFA negotiation, and Thailand is going to host the first round in November 2023. DEFA, aimed at enabling and safeguarding the digital trade ecosystem, is targeted to conclude by the end of 2025 and could double the value of the regional digital economy to US$2 trillion by 2030. This augurs well for the future of digital economy and connectivity of payment system between ASEAN and Hong Kong as well as ASEAN and Thailand.

Since 2019, the ASEAN – Hong Kong China Free Trade Agreement has also significantly increased trade flows between the two. The two-way trade between Hong Kong and ASEAN reached 132.9 million US dollars in 2021, an 18 per cent increase from the previous year. The FDI from Hong Kong to ASEAN also increased by 8.1 per cent in 2021, reaching 8.3 billion US dollars. Despite the downturn in international trade during the pandemic, the total bilateral merchandise trade between ASEAN and Hong Kong reached more than 133 billion US dollars in 2022, or 3.5 per cent of total trade of ASEAN. The full utilization of this framework will further boost trade and investment ties between ASEAN and Hong Kong.

Thailand is also rendering our full support to the regional economic framework so our region can reap mutual benefits. Thailand is working to strengthen existing frameworks for economic cooperation including RCEP, ACD, ACMECS and BIMSTEC while expediting ongoing trade frameworks including Thailand-EU Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (Thai-EU PCA) and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

We are also reaching out to friends and allies to forge closer economic ties at the bilateral levels. We will build upon our economic and trading partners including China, the United States, Japan, India and ASEAN and strengthen economic bonds with key partners including Republic of Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, among many others. Our neighbouring countries are also high on our economic agenda as evident from the Prime Minister’s fist port of call to Cambodia after assuming office.

During the UNGA in New York, the Prime Minister met with captain of industries and large companies from the US side who expressed keen interests in investing in the Thai economy just last month. This is a first of many such outreach to bring Thailand closer to our friends and allies through economic ties with a business delegation --- comprising large and small companies --- travelling with the Prime Minister on his overseas trips to advance Thailand’s economic interests.

But Thailand is not only attracting more foreign investment, we are doing so in a sustainable manner through green transition, digitalization, and sustainable agriculture. On foreign policy, my priority is to bring foreign policy home to create more income and opportunities for the Thai people. We will also improve the livelihood of Thai people by bringing Thailand back on to the global radar screen. We are doing so by exploring opportunities for digital economy, innovation, start-ups and Thai investment overseas. We are also planning to stimulate the economy from the grassroots level for the short-term gain to revive pockets of local economy as well as laying the foundation for long-term growth. The Thai government also aims to alleviate all households living with generational poverty by 2027. In other words, we will empower the people from the very foundation both for short-term goals and long-term gains through these measures.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The tasks I have laid out above are not without challenges. How far we can achieve them will very much depend on the regional and global environment. Today, Thailand and the world are experiencing major shifts and challenges in all aspects from the economy, social injustice, and the environment, exacerbated by the effect of COVID-19. At a time when we need more global co-operation, the world has become more fragmented with friend-shoring, decoupling and geopolitical rivalry becoming the norm. Thailand believes that effectivemultilateralism and efficient regionalism with a strong and united ASEAN at its core offers a way forward in addressing our common challenges.

If we look at ASEAN, it would be fair to say that ASEAN has served as a solid anchor in preserving regional peace and stability. And this has created a predictable environment for ASEAN to generate continued economic growth over the years. ASEAN, as a group, is currently the fifth largest economy in the world. We expect to become the fourth largest economy by 2030.

However, we are facing new uncertainties that could push back that target. The rising geopolitical tensions and strategic competitions mean that we have to navigate carefully while managing the global impacts of disruptive events such as pandemics, technology and climate change. Together they create challenges and opportunities that require a re-think of social and development strategies.

Perhaps it may be helpful to perceive of today’s geo-strategic landscape in three aspects—geopolitical, geo-economic and geo-technological competitions. Naturally, the region is caught up in the middle of this escalated strategic competition.We hope that the formation of alliances, mini-laterals like the QUAD, and other security arrangements like the AUKUS in the region will contribute positively to the regional order and avoid activities that may lead to miscalculations. Collectively, ASEAN does not want to see this region become an arena of confrontation. More pertinently, we want to avoid being forced to choose sides. It is with this premise that the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific promotes engagement with all stakeholders in an inclusive and open manner.We would need to insulate our economies against the uncertainties and challenges.

On the bright side, ASEAN may benefit from this shift as businesses seek to relocate production bases or new sources of the supply chain. But ASEAN countries must be ready to be an attractive choice for such moves. We will, therefore, need to invest more on improving competitiveness, productivity, human resources and infrastructure development in the region as we aim to foster new drivers of growth. Investment to build necessary ecosystems will be essential to support innovation, digital transformation, clean energy, and technologies for future industries. These will be key drivers to create pathways for green growth transformation and mainstream climate change actions in our efforts to achieve sustainable development.

What we also need is to create the conditions for peace, stability and predictability. As a case in point, the unfolding situation in the Middle East serves as a stark reminder of the disruptive effects of the absence of peace. It also drives home the immediacy for all of us to do our utmost in maintaining peace and stability. Major powers’ rivalry must be turned into rules-based strategic competition that does not force countries in the region to choose side nor forego economic opportunities out of geopolitical consideration. A rising Asia, and the global community at large, needs peaceful and stable conditions for economic progress to continue apace. As such, a regional ecosystem whereby deeper integration and co-operation that can turn the dream of the Asian century into reality must be our common goal. Thailand believes effective multilateralism supported by efficient regionalism with ASEAN as a key driver offers a possible way forward. To this end, we must work in concert to achieve this goal so that ASEAN, Hong Kong, and the entire international community can continue to prosper as a collective whole.

I thank you.

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(As delivered)