Thailand Overview

Photo credit

Carol Douglass

11:07pm Monday 15 March

New Zealand's relations with Thailand date from the 1950s and have developed into a broad based relationship with rapid growth in people to people links.

The two countries share similar perspectives on regional political and security issues. Extensive cooperation exists in multilateral (WTO) and regional fora (APEC, ASEAN Regional Forum, and East Asia Summit).

Thailand is an important export market for New Zealand. In the year ending December 2008, New Zealand exports amounted to NZ$812 million, and imports for the same period were valued at NZ$1.24 billion. As well as AANZFTA, New Zealand and Thailand are partners in a Closer Economic Partnership, signed in April 2005.

There is growing informal interaction between NZAID and Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), the aid agency in Thailand, as areas of mutual interest and cooperation are explored.

Map of Thailand and surrounding region with ASEAN neighbours marked

Key demographics

Official Name	Kingdom of Thailand
Land Area	513,115 sq km
Population	65.9m
Capital City	Bangkok
Religion	Buddhism - 95% of population, but also Islam, and Christianity
Language	Thai
Currency	Thai Baht

Key statistics

GDP	US$245.35 billion
GDP per capita	US$7,907 (PPP estimate 2007)
Total exports	US$153.57 billion
Total imports	US$143.76 billion
Total NZ exports to Thailand	NZ$812.5 million (2007-8)
Total NZ imports from Thailand	NZ$1239.9 million (2007-8)

Sources of data: IMF (GDP data), World Bank (export/imports) and Statistics New Zealand (NZ exports/imports).