Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt welcomed Kim Dong Yeon, governor of the South Korean province of Gyeonggi, at City Hall on Friday.
Accompanying Kim was a delegation of officials from the South Korean embassy.
At the meeting, both sides discussed cooperation and ties between the two cities, including the operation of the Gyeonggi Business Centre in Bangkok, cooperation in 12 target industries under the Thailand 4.0 policy, the Pangyo Techno Valley smart city initiative and cultural and tourism exchange programmes.
Chadchart said Bangkok welcomed investors from Gyeonggi and would provide support in infrastructure and services. He also said he will discuss with Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) officials the possibility of setting up task forces to provide support for business, investment, tourism and the environment for visitors from South Korea.
Meanwhile, Kim invited Chadchart to visit Gyeonggi and witness the operation of big corporations, like Samsung.
Chadchart responded by saying he always wanted to see and learn first-hand from an actual Smart City like Gyeonggi, not just model cities. He also said he especially wanted to see how Gyeonggi handles its traffic woes, so those solutions can be applied to Bangkok.
Gyeonggi and Thailand kicked off an official relationship in 2022 with the signing of a mini free-trade agreement between the Department of International Trade Promotion and the Gyeonggi Business and Science Accelerator (GBSA). The deal aimed to promote mutual trade in products, services and soft economy.
The Gyeonggi Business Centre (GBC) is a government-funded unit under GBSA with branches around the world. The centre provides various services and resources to promote business, trading and investment support to Gyeonggi businesses overseas. It also organises business meetings and training sessions.
The Pangyo Techno Valley was established in 2003 by South Korea as a centre for research and development of technology and biotechnology under smart city urban management to reduce crowdedness. It is now the home of several leading South Korean tech companies, much like Silicon Valley in the US.