Members of the Thai business community and Royal Thai Embassy officials met recently with the chief minister of Gujarat, one of India's most progressive states, to discuss increased cooperation.
The delegation included Nat Pinyowattanacheep, the consul-general of Thailand in Mumbai, and Adul Chotinisakorn, executive director of the Thai Trade Center in Mumbai. The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) was represented by vice-chairman Kriengkrai Thiennukul, secretary-general Kitti Tangjitmaneesakda, deputy secretary-general Ashok Upadhya, and other members.
Gujarat was the home base of Prime Minister Narendra Modi before he entered the national political arena. He owed his electoral victory last year largely to the economic transformation that he led while he was the chief minister of the state. His successor, Anandiben Patel, is committed to continuing that work.
The Thai delegation that met with Ms Patel exchanged views on pursuing various business opportunities as part of their participation in the seventh Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2015.
Gujarat has been at the forefront of industrialisation in India and has been held up as a model of how a modern approach to development could help transform the country. The state saw double-digit economic growth up to 2010-11, and while the rate slowed to 8% in 2013-14, it was still far above the average for all states at 4.2%.
Although Gujarat covers just 6% of the Indian land mass and accounts for 5% of the population, it contributes 7.6% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
The Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2015 attracted business and government participants from developing and developed countries alike, among them the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, South Africa, Japan and Singapore. It proved to be an ideal platform for knowledge sharing, social interaction and networking.
Approximately 2,500 delegates from 111 countries took part in the summit, which led to pledges of an astonishing 25 trillion rupees ($405 billion) worth of investments under 21,000 memoranda of understanding. The figure is more than double the 12 trillion rupees committed at the last event in 2013, and 10 times the amount of the investment commitments announced at the recent West Bengal Global Business Summit.