Shippers council to call for integrated export strategy

Council chairman Nopporn Thepsithar said yesterday that the country needed to formulate an integrated strategy as exports were still one of the economy’s main engines.
Moreover, the Kingdom’s global rivals have already pushed for closer attention to be given by their governments to trade and economic issues, he said.
At present, the Commerce Ministry is the only key government agency directly responsible for driving exports, he said, adding that this may not be enough as some of the problems facing the sector had to be addressed by many agencies.
The government should, therefore, consider formulating a new strategic plan and put exports firmly on the national agenda so that all involved agencies can work together efficiently, said Nopporn.
Without a concrete plan to drive exports in the long run, Thailand’s trade performance could continue to drop each year due to a lack of integrated effort among government agencies and a clear direction for boosting export growth, he warned.
Problems currently facing the sector involve a shortage of labour, which is a matter for the Labour Ministry; a lack of innovation in regard to goods and packaging, which is an issue for the Science and Technology Ministry; logistics issues, which are the responsibility of the Transport Ministry; and other trade and finance-related issues, which are down to the Commerce, Finance and Agriculture ministries to address.
For this year, during which global currency volatility is expected to be prevalent, the TNSC has revised down its projected export expansion to just 1.5 per cent, from 2.5 per cent in its previous forecast.
The Kingdom’s exports contracted 0.4 per cent last year.
The council’s prediction is in line with the Finance Ministry’s forecast of 1.4-per-cent export growth this year, but much lower than the Commerce Ministry’s target of 4-per-cent expansion.
Negative factors affecting export performance this year are seen as global currency volatility due to uncertain economic growth in many nations, a continued drop in crop prices, lower oil prices, and Thailand’s loss of GSP (generalised system of preferences) benefits when selling to the European Union, said the council chief.
Many Thai investors are relocating their manufacturing plants to neighbouring countries within the Asean Economic Community in order to maintain export privileges in developed countries, and this will also affect exports from Thailand, he added.
Another factor hindering the growth of Thai shipments is a huge increase in the Terminal Handling Charge, which shipping firms have insisted be hiked by 75 per cent, despite lower oil prices, he said.
Nopporn called for government agencies to pressure shipping companies to adjust their fees in accordance with actual costs.