Yingluck to speak to U.S. entrepreneurs in Siem Reap

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

By Mizzima News 

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been invited by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to travel to Cambodia on Friday to address a high-level U.S. business conference. 

Minister of Foreign Affairs Surapong Tovichakchaikul said Yingluck had accepted the invitation to give a speech at the US-Asean Business Council conference in Siem Reap. 

On her visit to Cambodia to attend the Asean Summit, Clinton is accompanied by U.S. entrepreneurs who will meet to discuss investments in the Asean region. 

Yingluck will deliver a speech to the US-Asean Business Forum and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Asean connectivity and Thailand's economic plan after the flood, officials said. 

She is scheduled to meet and have a bilateral discussion with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen prior to speaking to U.S. business representatives. 

In the meeting with Hun Sen, the main agenda would be cooperation on a road connecting the border and Laos's Xayaburi dam, said a Thai spokesman. 

The spokesman said allegations by the opposition Democrat Party that Yingluck would discuss a gas deal in the joint development area in the Gulf of Thailand with her Cambodian counterpart on Friday was not accurate. 

 A Thai official said Thailand and Cambodia would not be able to resume negotiation on the joint development area in the Gulf of Thailand, which is believed is be rich in petroleum resources, since the legal status of the 2001 memorandum of understanding was in doubt due to an announcement of denunciation made by the Democrats when they were in power. 

The former Democrat government announced in late 2009 that it was scrapping the 2001 MOU on the maritime deal after a conflict with Phnom Penh over a visit of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. There are, however, doubts whether the denunciation was effective since the then government did not officially inform Phnom Penh of the move.