On 2 July 2024, Ms. Siriporn Tantipanyathep, Consul-General of Thailand in Kolkata called on Shri Brajesh Mehrotra, Chief Secretary of Bihar, during her visit to Bihar. Shri Abhay Kumar Singh, Tourism Secretary of Bihar was also present. The two sides exchanged views and agreed to promote relations between Thailand and Bihar in various fields, especially pilgrimage tourism along Buddhist circuit, trade cooperation, tourism and cultural exchange.
Moreover, Bihar is an Eastern Indian state that hosts several places of significance in Buddhist history such as Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Vaishali, Nalanda and Dungeswari and Brahmayoni hills. For this reason, around 70,000 – 80,000 Thai tourists visit Bihar every year. Bihar is situated on the fertile Ganges plain, which supports the state’s robust agricultural sector, especially the cultivation of sugar cane, sugar refinement and ethanol distillation. Bihar also has high economic growth potentials since its population numbers more than 130 million and it is considered the youngest state in India with the median age of 22 years old.