Astana hosted a meeting of the Joint Commission for bilateral cooperation between the Governments of Kazakhstan and the Kingdom of Thailand

21 June, Astana hosted the Third meeting of the Joint Commission for bilateral cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand.

Kazakhstan delegation was headed by Vice-Minister of labor and social protection of population of Kazakhstan Birzhan Nurymbetov. The Thai delegation was represented by Deputy Minister of foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand Virasakdi Futrakul. In the result of the meeting, the parties agreed to continue work on the preparation of the Agreement on trade-economic cooperation between the Governments of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kingdom of Thailand.

Thailand presented the Eurasian economic Commission a letter of intent to start a joint study on the feasibility of negotiations on a free trade Agreement with the Eurasian economic community, what Mr. Futrakul informed the Kazakh side. The Thai delegation expressed their interest in getting detailed information on Kazakh-Chinese terminal in the port city of Lianyungang, Kazakhstan transport companies operating on this route, and the relevant customs regulations.

Thailand took 56202 tourists from Kazakhstan in 2015 and would like to attract more Kazakhstan citizens ' interested in the fields of medical tourism and Wellness. We expressed interest in sending experts to participate in training courses in the field of hotel business and tourism in Thailand.

The Kazakh side informed that every year the Republic of Kazakhstan was visited by about 1 thousand Thai tourists. In order to increase the flow of tourists between the two countries, Kazakhstan has developed and directed the Thai side a draft Agreement on mutual exemption from visa requirements. The Thai side agreed to soon send is considered a draft of the Kazakhstan diplomats.

In addition, as Vice-Minister of labor and social protection Birzhan Nurymbetov has offered to explore the possibility of bilateral cooperation in the field of labor and social protection. Both sides expressed interest in exchanging experiences and information on best practices and normative-legal acts on these areas.

Two leaders of the delegations agreed to develop technical cooperation between the two countries in the field of human resource development and capacity building, tourism and travel management, agriculture, energy, science, technology and innovation, and drug control.