1 Gateway to Asia

Gateway to Asia

Thailand enjoys a strategic location and serves as a gateway into the heart of Asia – home to what is today the largest growing economic market. 

The country also offers convenient trade with China, India and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and easy access into the Greater Mekong sub-region, where newly emerging markets offer great business potential.

Hub of ASEAN

Thailand was one of the founding members of ASEAN and has been instrumental in the formation and development of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). AFTA entered into force on 1 January 2010 for the six original ASEAN (ASEAN-6) members (Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Brunei) thereby reducing import duties to zero; the so-called CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) will follow suit in 2015. 

Thailand is ideally located at the crossroads of Asia, with easy access to the region’s dynamic markets, including its own booming domestic consumer market of 67 million people.  Thailand has long been a proponent of free and fair trade and its attractiveness as a production base for leading international companies is enhanced by a number of free trade agreements, and Thailand is certain to be a beneficiary of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which will enter into force in 2015.