Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Thailand`s Exhibition Association and the Indonesian Exhibition Companies Association (Asperapi) have reached agreement to cooperate in the exhibition industry in an effort to step up the two countries` business relations.

"We invite Indonesian businessmen to be involved in five of the largest exhibitions in Thailand as a bridge to enter the ASEAN market," exhibition director of the Thai Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) Supawan Teerarat said at a business forum themed "Maximize Your Business Opportunities in ASEAN through Thailand`s Champion Trade Shows" here on Thursday.

The five international trade exhibitions are the Bangkok International Gift Fair & Bangkok International Houseware (BIG + BIH), Metalex (machinery industry) Propak Asia (food packaging and health industry), Renewable Energy (alternative energy industry), and VIV Asia (agricultural industry).

"We, through this business forum, invite visitors and business partners from Indonesia to actively participate in Thailand`s largest exhibitions," Supawan said.

The joint exhibitions were expected to increase the two countries` trade and investment potentials and spur the growth of their industries.

The present business forum is the second so far staged while last year`s forum generated transactions worth a total of US$146.8 million and more than US$2.281 million worth of business agreements.

The value of Indonesia-Thailand trade in 2010 reached US$13.02 billion or up approximately 54 percent compared to that of 2009.

"Indonesia is one of the top five countries that send visitors to exhibitions in Thailand in 2010," Supawan added.

(SYS/B003/A014)

Editor: Suryanto
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