CEOs, govt officials to brainstorm strategy for trade promotion
Amid the steep slide in shipments, the Commerce Ministry has come up with a strategy to bring CEOs from various industries to meet with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak to brainstorm plans to promote trade.
The target industries are food and beverage, jewellery and ornaments and wellness (health, beauty and medical care).
Deputy Commerce Minister Suvit Maesincee said yesterday that the meetings would help give the government and officials a better picture of the situation so that they can draw up measures to drive the sale of each product to a particular market, as CEOs will share their experience and knowledge of market trends.
The Commerce Ministry will also launch missions to push exports to some specific emerging markets such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV), and some countries in the Middle East, mainly Iran, under a short-term measure to drive Thai exports in those markets.
According to the ministry’s report, despite total shipments contracting by 5.0 per cent to US$161.56 billion (Bt5.73 trillion) in the first nine months of the year, shipments to CLMV countries were up by 7.7 per cent.
This reflected strong demand for consumer goods from Thailand, especially clothing, jewellery and ornaments, and lifestyle products.
The government will also call for a meeting next month of the international trade development committee to draw up a trade strategy and find solutions for sweeping away export obstacles in driving Thailand’s trade next year.
The ministry believes that Thai shipments could start expanding by 5 per cent next year, reversing this year’s expected contraction of 3-5 per cent.
The ministry has already finalised its candidate list for Asean trade representatives to lead the Thai team in penetrating Asean markets under the "Deepening Asean" strategy next year.
The ministry will also reshuffle some trade representatives in 50 focus markets for higher efficiency.
