During his stay in Beijing, Somkid will meet with the Chinese leaders, attend seminars on tourism, trade, agriculture and quarantine, and sign some agreements.

Somkid arrived in Kunming, capital of the southwest China province of Yunnan, Sunday afternoon as the guest of Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi.

In his meetings with Bai Enpei, secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Yunnan Provincial Governor Xu Rongkai, Somkid expressed his country's wish to enhance economic cooperation between Thailand and Yunnan, saying "it's time to lay down a strategy of cooperative development between the two sides." He also invited Chinese enterprises to invest in northern Thailand.

(Xinhua News Agency June 18, 2003)