Busy year ahead for Trade Promotion Dept

The Department of International Trade Promotion has aggressively increased its activities, emphasising Asean and Asian markets, to drive exports amid many unfavourable factors.

“The Commerce Ministry and private exporters have agreed to maintain the working export target at 8-9 per cent to US$250 billion-$260 billion this year. Despite many obstructions, the target will be maintained,” Srirat Rastapana, director-general of the department, said last week.

The number of activities will rise from 223 last year to 276 this year.

The emerging markets are Australia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Eastern Europe, 

and Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States or CIS countries.

Although there are many hurdles, mainly the baht’s appreciation, the department will try to boost exports to every market by doing more promotions.

The department is scheduled to meet with exporters from various industries and Thai trade representatives in 65 countries in the middle of this month to review the export goal for each industry and market.

Among the 276 export activities, Asean and Asia markets will see 150, up from 105 last year, while the traditional markets of the United States, Japan and the European Union will get 71 and emerging markets will get 55, up from 43 last year. 

The activities in the Asean market include organising Thailand Trade Exhibitions, attending international trade fairs, doing in-store promotions with department stores, holding business-to-business matching events and missions, and pushing Thai exporters to trade more in Asean.

The department has also initiated many activities to reach each export market using a “tailor-made” approach.

They include knocking on doors, sharing win-win benefits, using digital commerce and social media, forming public-private partnerships, following global trends in healthcare and focusing on promoting the export of environmental friendly goods, paying more attention to small-lot orders, encouraging Thais to buy Thai goods, and promoting online trading.

In the second half of this year, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will lead Thai enterprises to many markets in Asean under the Thailand Week Roadshow project. The missions will be to Myanmar from June 8-11, to Surabaya in Indonesia from June 29-July 2, to Chennai from July 11-14 and to Manila from August 15-18.

She will also visit emerging countries to promote exports and investment to Thailand. The missions will be to South Africa and Russia in June, to Tanzania from July 29-30 and to Brazil in August.

According to the department’s report, the five negative factors are the baht’s appreciation, rising minimum wages, unstable global fuel prices, economic problems in the eurozone, US and Japan, and rising non-tariff barriers in many export markets.