Combined gift and houseware fair kicks off

The combined fair runs until Sunday at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Bitec). The second of two trade days is today from 10am to 6pm, and the fairs will be open for public retail sales on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 9pm.
The event aims to attract more than 45,000 large, medium-sized and small buyers as well as new buyer groups from all over the world. It is expected that total sales value at the combined fairs will reach Bt800 million.
Malee Choklumlerd, director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Department of International Trade Promotion, said so-called lifestyle products played a significant role in Thailand’s exports, accounting for more than US$2.718 billion (Bt93.21 billion) in export value last year.
The top 10 countries that import lifestyle products from Thailand are the United States, Japan, Australia, China, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Germany, Malaysia, India and South Korea.
This year, there are a number of positive factors driving the demand for such products from Thailand. 
The main factor is the positive growth trends in parts of the world economy, especially in China, Japan and Asean nations, all of which are major markets for Thailand’s lifestyle products.
Malee’s department says it is working in |collaboration with Thai entrepreneurs |to strengthen their businesses and develop a wide range of high-quality, modern and creative products that satisfy customers’ demands. For these reasons, the department is confident that Thailand’s lifestyle-product exports in 2017 will reach the export-growth target of 5 per cent year on year.