Tuesday 16 October 2018: the First Vice President of the National Council received Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, President of the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Thailand, and his delegation for an official meeting in Bern. Like Switzerland, Thailand is represented at the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which convened for the 139th time in Geneva from 14 to 18 October.
The official visit, the first by the current president of the Thai National Assembly, provided an opportunity to discuss some of the issues that unite the two countries and highlight the desire to intensify good relations at all levels. Talks focused in particular on the challenges related to migration, in relation to which Switzerland is conducting a number of projects in and around Thailand, and the issue of the presence and involvement of women and young people in politics at parliamentary level.
First Vice President Carobbio Guscetti also stressed the importance of the efforts Thailand is making to return to democracy.
Marina Carobbio Guscetti and Ponrpetch Wichitcholchai also took the opportunity to discuss the challenges facing the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN); Switzerland works closely with ASEAN, while Thailand, one of its five founding member states, will assume presidency of the association in 2019.
The Kingdom of Thailand is one of Switzerland’s foremost trading partners: in 2017, it was the second most important in Southeast Asia. The cornerstones of this relationship are the presence of leading Swiss companies in Thailand and tourism. In 2016, 118,000 Thai tourists (13.3% more than in 2015) visited Switzerland, while in the same year 208,967 Swiss tourists travelled to Thailand.
Switzerland is Thailand’s twelfth largest trading partner and ninth largest investor. At the start of 2018, there were 9,568 Swiss nationals living in Thailand, the largest Swiss community in Asia and testimony to the long tradition of friendship that binds the two countries.