On July 14, 2013, H.E. Lt. Cdr. Itti Ditbanjong, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand to the Russian Federation hosted a luncheon in honour of the Thai delegation from the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSMEP) led by Dr. Isara Phumas, Advisor to OSMEP. The delegation took    an opportunity to pay a courtesy call upon the Thai Ambassador after their participation in the Third CICA (Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures): Business Forum in Yekatarinburg between    11 - 14 July, 2013. 

     During the courtesy call, the Thai Ambassador to the Russian Federation mentioned the Russian economic potentials, especially its abundant reserves on oil and gas, as well as the national reserves fund which is one of the highest among the top four countries in the world. Despite the challenges among the Thai business community regarding the understanding of the Russian system and the Russian language constraint, the Thai Ambassador has expressed confident that the Thai - Russian economic relations still has further potentials to be further intensified. He also stressed that the continuous increase of Russian tourists traveling to Thailand of more than 1.3 millions per year with an approximate spending amount of at least 4,800 baht per head per day is a positive sign to further develop the closer economic ties between the two countries, particularly through the better understanding between their peoples.

     It is noted that Yekatarinburg was selected as a host city not only because of its significance as the 4th important city of Russia, but also a new center of the country’s tourism. Yekatarinburg has already been selected as one of the main Russian cities to host the FIFA World Cup 2018 and one of the candidate cities to host the 2020 World Expo.