JICA Thailand Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thailand, jointly conducted Workshop on Enhancing Investment Climate in CLMV Countries, in collaboration with Thailand Board of Investment (BOI).

          The workshop aimed to lead to improvement of the investment climate in CLMV countries as its main purpose, and was an effort to serve as an integral part in narrowing the development gap and deepening regional economic integration under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI).  BOI shared Thailand’s experience and best practices on "Recent Trends in Global and Regional Investment" and "Foreign Direct Investment and its Contribution". The other topics such as "Access to Finance", "Governance in Customs Operation" were shared by EXIM Bank and Royal Thai Customs, "FTAs as a tool to increase trade and investment", "Alleviating the regulatory burden" were shared by Department of Trade Negotiation and NESDB.           Dr. Suzuki and Mr. Ichikawa, Japanese advisors from Laos and Vietnam, also presented and supported the information on regional investment promotion.           The 2nd day of the workshop focused on country presentations and discussions with representatives from the Federation of Thai Industries towards investment climate in CLMV. The last session identified strengths and weaknesses of investment promotion in each country, and showed the areas of capacity building needs, through group discussion facilitated by staff of BOI, Japanese Advisors, JETRO, JICA, and MoFA.