Thai Govt To Support FG’s Rice, Cassava Production

The Thai Government has
said  that it would support the  Federal Government in its desire to boost rice and cassava production in line with its  Transformation Agenda.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Olugbenga Ashiru, made this known in Abuja when he received a delegation led by Dr Surappong Tovichakchaikul, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Both parties held closed door discussions aimed at improving the level of bilateral relations between both countries.
Ashiru, thereafter,  highlighted areas in which both parties agreed to enhance relations.
“We’ve identified areas of further future cooperation, especially in the key sectors of our economic development; agriculture being one of them.
“We’ve expressed the desire to see cooperation with Thailand in terms of helping Nigeria to improve on our own rice production locally, because we want to reduce the level of our rice import from other countries.
“Thailand, they have the experience, the manpower, the technical capability; they have promised to assist Nigeria in terms of adding value to our own rice production; not just rice, we’ve also discussed on adding value to our cassava production.
“We want to add more value to it in terms of having more derivatives and they’ve promised assistance to Nigeria in this field.
“We’ve also discussed areas of extraction — mining — and they have agreed to assist in this area which is also very welcome.”
The minister added that Nigeria had agreed to the Thai government’s request for Technical Aid Corps (TAC) volunteers in the English language.
In his address, Thailand’s deputy prime minister expressed his government’s willingness to offer technical support to Nigeria’s rice and cassava production.
He said the partnership would enable both countries to double the trade volume from 1.45 billion dollars to three  billion dollars in the next five years.
“Thailand is seeking to enhance its cooperation with Africa; we consider Nigeria as our key partner. The volume of bilateral trade between Thailand and Nigeria has been increasing continuously.
“Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce has proposed that both sides aim to double the bilateral trade volume from 1.45 dollars per year to three billion dollars in the next five years. Nigeria is Thailand’s biggest rice importer in the world.
“We are mindful of Nigeria’s policy to enhance rice production capacity to substitute rice import; however, I hope Nigeria will consider continuing  to import Thai rice.
“At the same time, we would like to be of assistance to you by extending rice farming technical cooperation to your country as we have done in some other African countries,“ he said
The deputy prime minister also identified several areas of cooperation between both countries, including agro-processing, especially local production of rice, cassava, the processing of gemstones, capacity building, tourism, public health, training and manpower development.
The envoy described both countries as regional hubs, underscoring the need to encourage officials to expedite efforts to conclude the trade and economic cooperation agreement between them.
He said: “The Joint Trade commission to be established under the agreement will be a vital mechanism for both sides to find ways to enhance trade and investment and address trade related issues.”
Other issues discussed included the implementation of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement and cooperation between the private sectors of the two countries.
Both parties also held discussions on enhancing development cooperation, including technical assistance and exchange of volunteers, relations with ECOWAS, and the sharing of experiences on Thai Healthcare Delivery System, among others.
Both parties agreed to support each other’s candidates for election into various international positions.