Agency promotes Thaitrade.com as online hub for budding SME exporters
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The International Trade Promotion Department plans to promote its website, Thaitrade.com, as a hub for online trading in Asean, as part of its support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with sights on becoming international traders.
To support the plan, the department has recently joined hands with commercial banks and express carrier DHL in facilitating shipments and payments for traders and buyers.
Lalida Jivanuntapravat, director of the department’s Digital and Information Technology Bureau, said that with emerging global growth of online trading, the department would promote Thaitrade.com to become a centre for trading in Asean, so that more Thai enterprises have a chance of reaching customers within the region.
With more than 13,000 stores and 200,000 products, the website has the potential to develop into an attractive centre for online shoppers to visit.
“The Asean Economic Community [to be implemented next year] will pave the way for full trade liberalisation. Online trading will play a more significant role in trading. Thailand will therefore encourage businesses to facilitate online shoppers in the era of borderless trading,” Lalida said.
To promote the website, the department will participate in international trade fairs held within Asean.
It will also collaborate with website owners and traders in other Asean countries to link their sites with Thaitrade.com, she said.
The agency has already done this in Vietnam, and hopes to make similar progress in Indonesia and the Philippines in the near future, she added.
The bureau director said the website should facilitate more export growth, as well as enhance the efficiency of Thai SMEs seeking to start trading overseas.
As part of its plan to help SMEs, the department provides training in how to develop into online traders.
This includes training in taking pictures of products for uploading onto the website, and providing assistance for translation into other languages.
Moreover, Bangkok Bank, Krung Thai Bank and Kasikornbank are cooperating with the department in suggesting clients that might join Thaitrade.com.
The banks are also developing a payment system to facilitate the growth of online trading.
DHL, meanwhile, has formed an alliance with the department for providing shipping services for online traders.
The international delivery giant also provides export-import information about each Asean market for online traders.
The department also has a mobile application so that online shoppers can access the website via their smart phone.
Since its launch four years ago, Thaitrade.com has created trading valued at Bt3 billion.
It has served 1,015 pairs of traders from 42 countries in terms of business-matching, as well as 65,620 shoppers worldwide.
