Scaling up its relations with Thailand, a key ASEAN country, China has said it plans to open Yuan clearing Bank to boost bilateral trade to USD 100 billion, besides providing visa exemption facility for regular travellers between the two countries.
China is considering setting up a Yuan clearing bank in Thailand to meet demand for currency settlement between the two countries, Premier Li Keqiang said during his maiden visit to Bangkok yesterday, laying out a road map for boosting its bilateral ties.
The move is to encourage more trade settlement in the Yuan between businesses from the two nations, Li said during a speech to the Thai parliament.
The bank will play a major role in meeting the target of annual bilateral trade of USD 100 billion between Bangkok and Beijing in 2015, a goal mentioned by Li and his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra.
The countries also reached a consensus on the signing of a MoU on visa exemption for regular travellers, facilitating people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries and bring more benefits to their people, Li said.
"There is an old Chinese saying that goes: The more exchanges among relatives, the warmer their relations become," Li said .
Thailand is the first ASEAN country to start such talks with China, which is now the largest source of foreign visitors to the country.
Li estimated that the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand this year will reach 5 million.
China also offered to buy over a million tonnes of Thai rice over a period of five years. The two countries are also in talks over China building high speed network in Thailand.
The slew of measures to woo Thailand came in the backdrop of Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia, the four ASEAN countries who had maritime disputes with China over the South China Sea.
China-Thailand bilateral trade has prospered, with the volume reaching nearly USD 70 billion last year.
China is now Thailand's largest trading partner, while Thailand is China's second-largest trading partner among ASEAN countries.
The volume of bilateral swap agreements between China and ASEAN has reached 1.4 trillion yuan (USD 228 billion), while yuan-denominated cross-border settlements reached 1.12 trillion yuan by June this year.
ASEAN is a geo-political and economic organisation of ten countries located in Southeast Asia. The key members of ASEAN block include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam.
