China's Macao, Thailand's Phuket ink MoU on trade, tourism cooperation

BANGKOK - Thailand's popular beach destination Phuket and China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will boost trade and tourism cooperation.

The signing was witnessed by Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and Chief Executive of the Macao SAR Chui Sai-on.

Chui is on a three-day visit to Thailand.

Chui said Macao aims to expand cooperation with Thailand in education, traditional Chinese medical science and markets of Portuguese-speaking countries under the Belt and Road Initiative. He said Thailand is one of Macao's key partners in southeast Asia in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Don said the two sides have discussed exploring potential cooperation in areas of economy, tourism, medical science and innovative cultural industry, adding that Thailand hopes to drum up investments from Macao to its Eastern Economic Corridor.

Macao recorded 198,222 Thai visitor arrivals last year, a year-on-year decline of 16.1 percent, 54.2 percent of them same-day visitors, according to the Statistics and Census Bureau.

The Macao SAR government will host the 2018 Traditional Medicine International Development Forum and the Economic and Financial Promotion Forum in Bangkok on Thursday.