500 Anos Portugal-Tailândia, Thailand - Portugal Trade and Investment News

[napoleon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand

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Royal Thai Embassy Portugal, Lisbon



Rua de Alcolena, 12, Restelo
1400-005 Lisbon

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500 Anos Portugal-Tailândia, por Miguel Castelo Branco

Segunda-feira, 1 de Março de 2010


http://500anosportugaltailandia.blogspot.com/


Os thais chamam à sua capital Krung Thep Mahanakhon (กรุงเทพมหานคร), pelo que se o caro leitor se referir a Bangkok (Banguecoque em português) em frente de um tailandês comum, este não compreenderá de que lugar se está a falar. Isto tem uma explicação. Bangkok foi criada por portugueses em meados do século XVII e, traduzido para português, quer dizer tão só Azeitão ou "aldeia das azeitoneiras" (Ban = aldeia + Kók/กอก = oliveira). Originárias da América do Sul, as azeitoneiras Spondias mombin (cajá-manga para os brasileiros) foram introduzidas no Sudeste-Asiático pelos portugueses em inícios do século XVII e usadas como base para molhos e conservas, ou seja, com a mesma finalidade do azeite de oliveira na Europa da Antiguidade e Idade Média. A aldeia de Bangkok nasceu no actual distrito de Samsen, três quilómetros a norte do complexo religioso-administrativo do palácio real, que só seria erigido a partir de 1782. Ali havia uma igreja em madeira que servia o Padroado e era em Bangkok que as embarcações que subiam o Chao Phrya (rio de Bangkok) em direcção à antiga capital (Ayutthaya) interrompiam a sua viagem para receberem pilotos experimentados na navegação fluvial. Estes pilotos eram luso-siameses católicos, os únicos siameses que falavam a língua franca comercial e diplomática da região entre os séculos XVI e XIX, a língua portuguesa.

[napoleon]

Thai, portuguese friendship sails into its 500th year

The Nation Published on October 13, 2010


Having captured Malacca in 1511, Alfonso de Albuquerque, who directed his operations from Goa, promptly dispatched an embassy to King Ramathibodi II of Ayutthaya with credentials and gifts from the King of Portugal at the ready. The reason was that Albuquerque had heard that Malacca was officially a tributary state to the Siamese king, who he wanted to sound out over where the matter stood.

Old Portuguese maps and accounts indeed show the whole peninsula to be Siamese. No doubt it was a tenuous claim, but one dating back to the 13th-century Sukhothai era, and it led to failed military expeditions, especially in the case of Malacca.


Imagine then the surprise of the Portuguese ambassadors at the Siamese court in 1511 when the king offered his congratulations and told them that they were welcome to keep Malacca on condition that Portugal punished the Malaccan sultan on his behalf.


I might be dramatising a little here, but it falls into a pattern similar to Koh Maak (Penang) when it was "ceded", or taken as a fait accompli, by the English East India Company in the reign of King Rama I. Actually, King Rama I, who was seeking trade with England, offered Phuket to Captain Francis Light of the East India Company. But the good captain preferred instead to keep a Siamese lady in Phuket as his wife, and went on to settle at Penang. (It was a lucky break for Siam, as otherwise the peninsula up to Hua Hin would have been Malaysian today!) Their issue, Francis Light Jr, eventually went on to Australia to found Adelaide, where Thais today should have the privilege to travel without a visa.


In previous centuries, European powers came to preach, exploit and colonise. On the whole, the concept did not exist in our region. There were invasions and the tribute system, but otherwise the Confucianist order prevailed, a strict hierarchy based on seniority. In this system the weaker states paid symbolic tribute to the stronger ones, who then ultimately paid homage to the "Son of Heaven" in Beijing. Siam used to pay tributes - in this case, sacred water, or suai - to Cambodia, an arrangement that reversed when power shifted. Similarly, tributes in the form of "silver" and "golden" trees were sent regularly to the Siamese capital by the southern states and the northern kingdoms of Lanchang, Champasak, Chiang Mai, Nan, Lampang, etc. Siam, since the 13th century, had in turn sent tribute to Beijing. But that had to do more with trade as much as anything else, which the Siamese undertook until the Opium War of the 19th century when it became pointless.


In this connection, I remember that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a few years ago commemorated 30 years of diplomatic relations with China when it should have been a celebration of seven centuries; or when the Thai Post Office printed a stamp to mark 30 years of ties with Iran, when the Persian embassy building, still a visible ruin in Lopburi and dating back to the 1680s, still stands. I fail to understand why our government clings to the modern form of the presentation of credentials in the colonial morning coat.


The French simply disregarded this and instead insisted on celebrating the tri-centenary of our diplomatic relations in 1985, based on the arrival of the Chaumont embassy in Ayutthaya in 1685. At the time, I protested, saying that it should have been celebrated a year earlier since our embassy arrived in France the year before, in 1684. For good measure, I also proposed that the Anglo-Thai tri-centenary should have been celebrated in the same year, since the same embassy arrived in England for an audience with King Charles II in 1684 before crossing the English Channel. But the English penchant for understatement prevented anything colourful happening and my proposal simply fell on deaf ears.


Nothing, however, surpasses Portugal's celebration of 500 years of friendship with Thailand, with its friendly naval presence of an imposing Tall Ship ( the Sagres) on the Chao Phya River (no gunboats here!), and insistence on the happy memory of our shared history.

[napoleon]

Portuguese ship arrives to celebrate 500 years of bilateral ties

THE NATION Published on October 10, 2010


A Portuguese Navy sailing ship has made its way to Thailand to mark the first official contact between the two countries five centuries ago.

The Sagres, a strikingly beautiful, tall ship, docked at Bangkok's Klong Toei Port yesterday morning. The naval training ship was warmly greeted by Portuguese Ambassador Antonio de Faria e Maya along with representatives from the Portuguese community.


The ship is here for the first time to celebrate the arrival of Portuguese envoy Duarte Fernandes at Trangque, a city of Siam that is now the southern province of Trang, in 1511, during the Ayutthaya period. Next year will mark 500 years of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Portugal.


The Sagres is expected to be here until Thursday and is open to local visitors.


"The ship can receive more than 1,000 visitors each day and we would like to welcome everyone to come and visit us," said the ship's commander, Pedro Proenca Mendes.


What's special about this ship is that it is used for training Portugal's future naval officers and everything in the ship is manual, because the Portuguese want to train their naval officers to actually learn about the traditional way of sailing. Moreover, as it is a training ship, the decorations inside the ship are truly different from those in battle ships.


The ship was built in 1937 in Hamburg, Germany, and owned by the Germans. However, after World War II, the ship was kept by the United States as a war prize. Later, the US gave this ship to Brazil and Portugal purchased her from Brazil


The visit by Sagres is part of the touring-around-the-world mission of the Portuguese navy in order to strengthen relations with visited countries and to be a floating embassy of Portugal.


"Wherever we go we send messages of friendship and support our foreign policy," the captain stated.


The mission will take about 11 and a half months, which will be over this December, when the ship is due to land in Lisbon.

[napoleon]

Bangkok Port

http://www.pantip.com/cafe/gallery/t.../G9805455.html

[costa]

Good to see wherever we pass, we make friends, not enemies.

[Barragon]

amazing

i hope to visit phi phi islands

[Gorky]

Originally Posted by Barragon

amazing

i hope to visit phi phi islands

(2)

[Muchenyi]

Se for à Tailândia e disser que é Português, raros ou nenhuns se vão lembrar desta "amizade". Qual o último investimento que Portugal fez na Tailândia nos últimos três séculos? (não vamos contar com a importação de putas para o território ultramarino de Macau).

[thoga31]

Eh lá, chegas aqui e disparas logo coisas desta natureza?

[Muchenyi]

Originally Posted by thoga31

Eh lá, chegas aqui e disparas logo coisas desta natureza?

Que natureza? Verdades!? Pois bem meu caro, a primeira minha visita à Tailândia decorreu no longínquo ano de 1981, sendo que comprei a minha primeira (de algumas) propriedades naquela terra em 1987. Pois bem, agora conteste.

[thoga31]

Formalmente falando...

Meu caro, a minha pessoa não estava exactamente a referir-se às "verdades" que disse, mas sim ao palavreado que utilizou aquando a finalização do seu "raciocínio".
Há modos de se dizerem "as verdades".

[Muchenyi]

As verdades devem dizer-se (e escrever-se) nuas e cruas, sem preconceitos ou receios da lapiseira vermelha.

[napoleon]

Thailand’s Royal Princess visits Portugal

March 9th, 2012

CHIANGRAI TIMES – Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand held a two-day visit to Portugal, to preside over the opening ceremony of the Thai Pavilion (Sala Thai) in Belém Park; a gift from the Thai Government and its people to Portugal, to celebrate 500 years since the arrival of the Portuguese people to the Kingdom of Siam.

The pavilion was built in Bangkok and shipped to Lisbon probably following the same route that Portuguese sailors took 500 years ago when they were the first westerners to arrive in Thailand.

Thai architect Athit Limmun chose Portugal’s Jerónimos Monastery as inspiration for the pavilion, which is a ‘symbol of friendship’ between the two countries.


The Highlight of the show was the prelude performed by Her Royal Highness playing ‘Ranat Ek’, a led xylophone
The Golden Pavilion was achieved using a thousand fine golden leaves and has four entrances, leading to the City of Angels, Bangkok, and the nearby Jerónimos Monastery.

The lower part of the pavilion is coloured in shades of green and is almost like a balcony, resembling Jerónimos’ cloisters, bringing both countries’ cultures together.

After the ceremony Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and Mrs. Cavaco Silva attended a Thai performing arts show in the Oriente Museum, followed by a reception.

The Highlight of the show was the prelude performed by Her Royal Highness playing ‘Ranat Ek’, a led xylophone, together with the Royal Thai Dance Troup.

The resounding success of the whole event is attributed to the Thai Ambassador to Portugal, Mr. Chakorn Suchiva, who was very pleased with the Royal visit and especially to see the long process of the Sala Thai implementation successfully concluded.

According to the Ambassador of Thailand, Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn´s visit to Portugal will also mark a golden era in Thai-Portuguese relations.

In this regard, both sides will use the opportunity to further strengthen the long-lasting relations and cooperation in other aspects, including trade and tourism.

On day two of her whirlwind visit Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn was received by the President of the Republic in Belém Palace for a meeting, followed by lunch hosted by President Cavaco Silva, after which Her Royal Highness visited Lisbon’s Tile Museum and the Champalimaud Foundation.

http://www.chiangraitimes.com/news/6110.html

[Ponta Negra]

belas fotos ! ^ ^

[napoleon]

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Portugal eyes Asia trade to revive economy

THE NATION December 17, 2012 1:00 am

Portugal hopes non-European markets, and Asia in particular, will help it out of economic crisis.

In spite of being one of the European Union countries facing serious fiscal problems, Portugal has shown good signs of recovery with a brighter outlook for higher exports and a closer trade-and-investment relationship with Thailand, the country's ambassador to Thailand told The Nation.

Jorge Torres Pereira said his country was seeing more and more evidence of good news, mainly improvements in exports.

"The trade balance has improved. Business confidence is returning. We know that the growth will be outside Europe. We are confident of being a part of it as export outside the European single market has increased to a large degree," the ambassador said.

He said his country wanted to be more active in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia as this region has become more and more important.

According to the embassy, Portuguese exports to non-traditional markets rose significantly by 23 per cent during the first 11 months this year compared with the same period last year. Shipments to non-EU markets accounted for 25 per cent of total export value. Overall exports grew by 7.7 per cent in the first 11 months, while imports diminished by 5 per cent.

Torres Pereira predicted that as exports recovered, Portugal's economy would restructure itself. More trade will grow outside the EU markets. The economy should get out of recession within the next few years.

With Portugal's strongly positive attitude towards non-European markets and its good relationship with Thailand for more than 500 years, the ambassador is confident in promoting more trade and investment between the two countries.

The Asean Economic Community will also increase the attractiveness of Thailand for investment into the country and the region.

The ambassador said Portugal could form triangular ventures with Thailand to access the Myanmar market.

The Portuguese government "wants to raise awareness on investment opportunities for Portuguese entrepreneurs in Thailand. The embassy will set up a trade mission in the first quarter of next year to promote trade, service and investment growth," Torres Pereira said.

The mission will focus on a variety of sectors in line with the move towards a free-trade agreement between the EU and Thailand. Potential sectors are tourism, green energy including solar and wind power, innovation industries, machinery production with research and development, agricultural industries, foods, paper, textiles and garments, and wine trading.

About 20 businesspeople from Portugal are expected to join the mission.

The ambassador explained that his country was currently promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) by providing many incentives. For example, a "Golden Residence Permit" will be among the special privileges granted to investors that create capital transfers equal to or above 1 million euros (Bt40 million), create at least 30 jobs, or acquire real estate with a value equal to or above 500,000 euros.

He added that Thai investors should also increase their awareness of opportunities for FDI in Portugal, as they would not only access 10 million people in Portugal itself, but also 240 million in Portuguese-speaking countries such as Brazil and Angola.

Portugal turned to the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund for bailouts worth 78 billion euros in 2011. It has been forced to adopt an austerity programme by cutting spending and raising taxes to get its fiscal position in better shape. So far it has received 61 billion euros.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/busi...-30196216.html

[Cbr Domes]