Thailand to help BIMSTEC nat in tourism promotion

Chiang Mai (Thailand), Sep 25: Thailand will offer its expertise in tourism promotion to countries along the Bay of Bengal as part of South and Southeast Asia multi-sectoral cooperation, a senior Thai foreign ministry officiai said here.

Thailand is also looking at the feasibility of easier travel among the seven memeber countries of the nine-year-old Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Thanatip Upatising, Deputy Director General of International Economic Affairs of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs told UNI.

In pursuit of this, the Thai Embassy in New Delhi last year set up a visa facilitation service (VFS) in collaboration with an Indian private sector provider operating in the major Indian metros.

''This was initiated unilaterally by us in view of the high demand for Thai visas in India,'' Mr Thanatip said.

Thousands of Indian visitors to Thailand are now using the facility, he added.

BIMSTEC consists of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. It was set up in 1997 as an economic cooperation platform and was named as per the initials of the original members -- Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The forum covers 13 areas of cooperation -- trade and investment, technology, transport, energy, tourism, fishery, agriculture, health, disaster and environmental management, counter terrorism and transnational crime, poverty alleviation, culture, and people-to-people contact.

Last month, a meeting of BIMSTEC tourism ministers agreed on a plan of action for tourism promotion among member countries.

UNI