Taipei City Government

Led by Executive Director Twekiat Janprajak and Deputy Executive Director Sunh Arunrugstichai, a 11-member delegation from the Thailand Trade and Economic Office (TTEO) paid a courtesy call to Mayor Chiang Wan-an on May 18.

During the meeting, Mayor Chiang remarked that the city government has enjoyed a close relationship with TTEO. Having attended the Amazing Thailand Festival 2023 earlier in the year, he expressed his gratitude to the staff members of the representative office for doing a great job in planning and successfully recreating the traditional festive atmosphere at the event.

Representative Janprajak thanked the mayor and the civil servants of Taipei City Government for their support. He reported that the successful event attracted nearly 100,000 revelers. Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tsai Shih-ping pointed out that city hall has collaborated with TTEO for many years to organize the festival, and it plans to expand the scale of future events to cover exchanges in areas such as film, fashion, and culinary culture.

According to the mayor, there are currently 150,000 Taiwan nationals living in Thailand. Boasting the second largest overseas community of Taiwanese second to only Indonesia, Thailand is an important hub for the island’s people in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, tourism exchange between the two countries is fairly commonplace, with 80,000 travelers from Thailand visiting Taiwan in the first quarter of 2023 alone. Chiang is also looking forward to the reopening of direct flights between Taipei to Phuket, which is a popular tourist attraction where many descendants of immigrants from Fujian, Hakka, and Chaozhou reside today.

As the fifth largest foreign investor of Thailand, Janprajak mentioned that there are roughly 5,000 Taiwanese companies in Thailand. These include top companies such as Chunghwa Telecom and Foxconn. Economic Development Commissioner Chen Chun-an added that the city government delegation will travel to Southeast Asian nations including Thailand, Vietnam, and India in July to attract foreign investment. Thailand is an important partner in in this area, and he looks forward to possible collaboration between the two side in sustainable economy.