– confirming friendly relations between their states and their people;
– wishing to promote the development of their economic cooperation in the fields of mutual interests on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and reciprocity;
– taking into account the mutual benefit arising from increased trade and investment, and the wish to strengthen further the relations, especially through the promotion of bilat¬eral trade, investment, intellectual property rights, educational cooperation, economic ties and closer cooperation; and
– taking into account the obligations of their states arising from international agreements,
Have agreed as follows:
Article 1
The Contracting Parties shall, within the framework of their respective laws, regulations and other provisions and taking into account their respective international obliga¬tions and agreements, make their best efforts to develop and strengthen economic cooperation on the widest possible basis and in all the fields they deem to be of their mutual interest and benefit.
Article 2
The Contracting Parties shall strive to create favourable conditions to strengthen economic cooperation especially by:
– facilitating and supporting the exchange and contacts between their economic operators;
identifying and facilitating investment opportunities;
– facilitating the exchange of information on activities in the domestic market, including the rules regarding consumer protection;
– promoting and supporting economic and investment missions, market analysis, the use of intellectual property rights, exchange of commercial and marketing information, business and institutional linkages and other initiatives which bring together potential commercial partners;
– promoting exchange of academic personnel, training and scholarship;
– helping each other in the organisation of fairs, exhibi¬tions symposium etc.;
– promoting and enhancing private sector industrial co¬operation including transfer of technology, through appropriate channels in accordance with their respective economic and development policies and priorities.
Article 3
To this end the Contracting Parties hereby establish the Thai-Slovenian Economic Council which shall deal with the fields covered by this Agreement and:
– identify the fields to which the cooperation between the Contracting Parties is to be extended, propose measures and give recommendations for their implementation;
– prepare proposals for improving the possibilities of co¬operation between the economic operators of the two states;
– exchange information on the economic situation in both states, as well as on regulations, economic programmes and other information of mutual interests;
– determine problems which hinder bilateral trade and economic cooperation and propose measures for their solu¬tion.
Article 4
The Economic Council shall be composed of the repre¬sentatives of the Contracting Parties and, where necessary, the representatives of other establishments of the private or the public sector may also be invited to participate.
Article 5
1. The Economic Council shall meet as a rule once a year or whenever necessary upon request of either of the Contract¬ing Parties.
2. The date of the meeting and the agenda of the Eco¬nomic Council shall be agreed upon by both Contracting Par¬ties.
3. The host Contracting Party shall take the minutes of the course and the conclusions of the meeting of the Economic Council, which shall be signed by the leaders of both delega¬tions at the end of the meeting.
Article 6
Either of the Contracting Parties may at any time request an amendment to this Agreement through diplomatic channels.
Article 7
This Agreement shall apply without prejudice to the ob¬ligations following from membership of the European Union, Consequently the provisions of this agreement may not be invoked or interpreted in such way as to invalidate or otherwise affect the obligations imposed by the Treaty on European Union or by the agreements between the Kingdom of Thailand and the European Union.
Article 8
– On the date of entry into force of this Agreement, the Agreement on Trade and Economic Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand, signed on 13 May 1999, shall be terminated.
Article 9
1. This Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the second month after the day of receiving the last note by which the Contracting Parties shall inform each other on the fulfillment of internal legal procedures required for the entry into force of this Agreement.
It shall be valid for one (1) year and shall be automatically extended for equal periods.
2. Either of the Contracting Parties may terminate this Agreement by informing the other Contracting Party of its intention in writing three (3) months prior to the expiration of any one year period.
Done in duplicate at Ljubljana on this 1st day of February 2011 in the English language.
For the Government of the Republic of Slovenia Samuel Žbogar (s) Minister of Foreign Affairs
For the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand Kasit Piromya (s) Minister of Foreign Affairs