India, Thailand Discuss Linking UPI With Prompt Pay Service

India and Thailand on Thursday reviewed the progress of talks on connecting the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) with Prompt Pay Service of the south-east Asian country and the settlement of trade transactions in local currency, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. The issues were discussed during the 13th meeting of the India-Thailand Joint Trade Committee.

The meeting was co-chaired by Auramon Supthaweethum, Director General of the Department of Trade Negotiations, Ministry of Commerce of Thailand, and Indu C Nair, Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce, India. In the meeting, India raised the restriction faced by domestic exporters of marine, poultry and meat products in Thailand.

Both sides discussed various market access issues and technical barriers faced by their exporters and agreed to resolve them, it said."The meeting also reviewed the progress of the ongoing efforts on connecting UPI of India with Prompt Pay Service of Thailand and the settlement of trade transactions in local currency," it added.

Thailand is India’s important trading partner in ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) with total trade of $16.89 billion. Thailand accounts for 13.6 per cent of India’s total trade with ASEAN. It is an important destination for India’s gems and jewellery, mechanical machinery, auto and auto components and agricultural products, especially marine products.

Both sides emphasised the need for identifying new potential products and priority sectors for expanding the bilateral trade. The officials identified a range of potential commodities and sectors for strengthened partnerships such as value-added marine products, smartphones, electric vehicles, food processing and pharmaceuticals. 

"The countries also agreed that there is huge scope in collaboration in the service sector and agreed to explore establishing mutual recognition/cooperation arrangements in nursing, accounting, audiovisual and medical tourism," it added.