Trade rep looking to rebuild Australians' confidence in Kingdom

ML Bhuthong Thongyai, director of the Thai Trade Centre in Australia, said last week that he was assigned by Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong, who also serves as commerce minister, to boost the confidence of Australian investors and foreign traders in Australia to do business with Thailand.
The Thai Trade Centre will also focus on increasing Thai exports to Australia by 10 per cent next year, promoting two-way investment and helping more Thai skilled workers to find jobs in Australia under the bilateral trade pact.
Bhuthong said Thai shipments |to Australia are projected to grow |by 10 per cent next year after drop-ping by 10 per cent this year due to shortages in Thailand of some products.
According to the Export Promotion Department, two-way trade in the first nine months rose 13.69 per cent on year to US$12.91 billion (Bt397 billion), of which Thailand’s exports dropped 10.82 per cent to $6.41 billion while its imports, particularly of gold, from Australia soared 56 per cent to $6.49 billion.
Exports declined due to the low supply of automobile parts and |some ores. Major exports were |cars, parts and accessories, precious
 stones and jewellery, air conditioners and parts, ethylene polymers, and prepared or preserved fish.
Thailand is Australia’s fourth largest market after China, the United States and Japan, while Australia is the Kingdom’s ninth largest.
The office will conduct trade missions for Australians to Thailand to observe the country’s exporting and logistics efficiency.
It will also lead groups from Australia and New Zealand to Thailand International Trade Fairs so that they will continue doing business with Thailand.
To promote Thai products in this high-potential market, Thailand will join Fine Food Australia, the largest international trade show in Australia’s food industry, in September next year. About 46 Thai exhibitors are expected to join the fair.
Many products have high potential to increase sales in the market, especially rice, processed food and other farm products.
Bhuthong urges Thai exporters to take advantage of the zero-per-cent import tariff under the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Fewer than 70 per cent of Thai exporters have sought to benefit from the FTA, though more than 90 per cent of trade in goods between both sides enjoy zero duties.
To open up more opportunities for Thai firms, Thailand will strengthen cooperation to liberalise the service industry.
Thailand and Australia will continue with the third round of negotiations on service liberalisation in March. Thailand plans to ask Australia to open up many businesses such as healthcare, engineering services, nursing |and education for Thai specialty institutes such as boxing and cooking.
Thailand will also ask Australia to relax some regulations to allow more Thai skilled workers such as chefs, engineers and nurses to enter Australia. In particular, the requirement to pass level 5 of the English test is too high for those skilled workers.
On Australia’s list for the talks are education, finance and telecommunications, as it has high competency to operate in those industries in the country.