Ambitious Saudi tree-planting project 'an export opportunity for Thailand'

FTI vice president Chartchai Panichewa said the federation was part of a Thai delegation that visited Saudi Arabia, led by Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, along with other public and private sector representatives last week (June 6-9).

Their mission was to drive bilateral cooperation and to augment trade and investment between the public and private sectors in both countries, he said.

An interesting project is Saudi Arabia's ambitious plan to plant 50 billion trees as part of the country's “Vision 2030” goals.

"This project would require import of trees from around the world to accomplish the 'The Saudi Green Initiative'. Planting 10 billion trees in Saudi Arabia and a total of 50 billion trees all over the Middle East region would change the arid areas,” he said.

Thailand has exported more than 200,000 trees to Saudi Arabia, he said, adding there was opportunity to export more trees.

Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries, aims to plant 40 billion trees in West Asia, he added.

Meanwhile, Kamhaeng Klasukon, deputy director-general of the Department of Business Development, revealed that according to its data on June 8, there were 146,860 requests for registration of business collateral contracts of perennial plants, which had a total value of 138.04 million baht.

Recently, the department in cooperation with the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), vowed to save the environment by launching a project that allows entrepreneurs to use valuable perennial plants as business collateral.

The department and the BAAC also launched a project to support the farmers in creating Thailand's green areas, which allow increasing oxygen and ozone to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

He added that the department and the BAAC were ready to make Thailand a world-class carbon credit generator.