This video screenshot shows Pakorn Peetathawatchai, the president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), speaking in an interview with Xinhua on May 30, 2019. With Thailand joining the Belt and Road Initiative, Thailand-China cooperation will get stronger and contribute more to Thai economy, the SET president said in a recent interview with Xinhua. (Xinhua/Thana Nuntavoranut)

by Guo Xinhui, Yang Zhou

BANGKOK, June 7 (Xinhua) -- With Thailand joining the Belt and Road Initiative, Thailand-China cooperation will get stronger and contribute more to Thai economy, the president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) said.

SET President Pakorn Peetathawatchai made the remarks in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

The SET president said that as China's economy continues growing, more foreign direct investment in Thailand may come from China in the future, also helping to keep Thai economy growing.

"There are so many things that Thailand and China will work together," Pakorn said.

Regarding the development of China's economy, the SET president said, "In my opinion, (Chinese economy) is actually quite sustainable in the long term," expressing his confidence in the Chinese economy.

"China has been doing a lot of infrastructure investments and now you will see that other countries surrounding are doing the same thing. And in the future, that would contribute to the new area of growth," he said.

Talking about SET's successful performance, the president said that they have quite diversified group of listed companies.

"We have the companies that have been doing very well not just in Thailand, but also over the world. For the companies that report their sorts of earning, we found that roughly 66 percent of their revenue actually come from outside of the country. So you can see that we have a diversified revenue generator here in Thailand," he said.

He also mentioned strong players from energy, banking, telecom, real-estate, among others, that keep SET growing.

SET is now welcoming a new golden area since the government tries to promote digital economy and launched the Eastern Economic Corridor project that seeks developing high value added industries in the three eastern provinces near Bangkok.

"We are looking into the new digital asset exchange that will be able to provide future investment and future fund appropriation for both investors and fund-raisers," he said.

"In the future, you will notice that there would be borderless investment and fund appropriation. So how can we adapt to the new technology domestically and cross border across all the new asset classes, that's the challenge that the Thai capital market has to face."