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APR2017 FOOD FOCUS THAILAND
SCOOP
Thegovernmenthasset topromoteexportgrowth toeachmajor targetedmarket
as follows: to fourmajor countries inASEAN (Indonesia,Malaysia, thePhilippines,
and Singapore) to grow 4 percent, to CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and
Vietnam)6.4percent, toChina4percent, to theUnitedStates3.2percent, toJapan
4 percent, to the European Union 3 percent, to Hong Kong 4 percent, to India 4
percent, toRussia 15 percent, toAustralia region 7 percent, to theMiddle East 2
percent, toAfrica region2.5percent,and toLatinAmericamarket3percent.However,
Thailandstillneeds tocloselymonitoreduncertainty tradepoliciesof tradingpartner
countriesandotheruncertaintyglobal situationas itcouldaffect international trading
and the country’s export growth.
Export Products
On export product structure, Thailand should accelerate restructuring the export
sector by upgradingexport products inaccordancewithThailand4.0policy, which
has focused on technology and innovation based industries. In automobile and
parts, the industryneeds toshift toproduceElectricVehiclesorEV, aswell asother
automobile parts with higher technology sophisticated within the next five years.
Thailandshouldhavenewproductsclusters toencourageoverall export growth. In
processedagriculturaland food industry, itshouldadoptnew innovation for increasing
products quality, as well as emphasise on organic productions and sustainability,
whichare theglobal’s trendat present.Moreover, some industriessuchasgarment
andconstruction thatThailandcouldnot competeas rely largelyoncost of labours,
enterprises should move their investment and production based to neighbouring
countries as part of strategy to reduce cost of production and increase export
competitiveness.
TheExport PromotionStrategies
Todrive theexportgrowth, thegovernmenthas recentlycalled forameetingamong
the government and leading private organisations and enterprises, as well as
RegionalAdvisors tobrainstormanddrawupexport strategies for drivingshipment
growth to each targetedmarket. This is the greater step of cooperation between
government andprivate sector so calledG2Pcooperation. Themeetinghas come
upwithboth short termor “QuickWin” strategy, and long termplans for promoting
Thai export growth. One of the Commerce Ministry’s priority export promotion
strategies or “QuickWin” measure, whichwill be implemented soonest, is to lead
Thai private enterprises that are under the Regional Advisors network to expand
their investment inother countriesso that itwill helpupgradesupplychainnetwork
forThaibusinesses to theworldmarket.Theministrywillalsosupportestablishment
of distribution centre (DC) for Thai products in various countries in ASEAN and
Africa regions. The ministry will also support export products of Thai Small and
Medium-sizedEnterprises (SMEs) topenetrateglobalmarket throughmanychannels
including on online andoffline trading by usingRegional Advisors’ network.
As part of theexport promotion strategies, theThai Tradeofficials inoverseas
has proceeded to do many marketing strategies, while employed more human
resources to penetrate new targetedmarkets. The taskforcewill stringentlymove
on threenew strategies including topromotehigh valueproducts and services, do
newmarketing plans, and penetratenew targetedmarkets.
TradeRelation and Investment
TheCommerceMinistryhasputonmeasure tospeedup theRegionalComprehensive
EconomicPartnership (RCEP),after thesuspensionof theTrans-PacificPartnership
Thailand’soverall export thisyearhasshownstrongergrowthcompared to thesameperiod last year.For thisyear, theThai government
hasset todriveexport target to5percent expansion, thanks topositiveoutlookon recoveringglobal economy, and risingglobal oil price
todriveup export value of many related productsmade from oil, while expected higher purchasing power inmany emergingmarkets.
Fashion/
Lifestyle/Jewelry
Electronics
Food
products
Plasticsmaterial
andproducts
Agreement or (TPP). Also, the ministry has eyed to form up free-trade
agreements (FTAs)withmanycountriesassuchwithSriLankaand theUnited
Kingdom following the BREXIT – a vote for the UK to leave the European
Union. Inparallel,Thailandwillproceedon tostrengtheneconomiccooperation
under theStrategicPartnership so that it will be an efficiencymechanism to
promote more trade and investment growth between Thailand and other
partner countries. Targeted countries for Thailand to form up the strategic
partnership agreement are such as with the Middle East, Russia and CIS,
countries inAfrica, aswell aswithmajor exportmarkets includingCLMV, the
UK, France, Germany, Italy, China, and India. Not only promotemore trade,
but also support Thai enterprises to invest overseas.
Moreover, the Thai government has asked for cooperation from Thai
leading companies to consider take over retail and wholesale business
networks inmany markets such as in the United States and the European
Union so that it will be amajor tool for supportingThai export distribution to
those targetedmarkets as well as link supply chains to consumers directly.
With thisstrategy, itwill effectivelyhelppromotemoreexport growth forThai
products, inparticular agricultural productsandprocessed food. To thisend,
thegovernment will fully provide support onpolicy side.
In an attempt to proceed on export promotion strategies and plans for
driving the Kingdom’s shipment growth to 5 percent target this year, the
CommerceMinistrywillcloselyworkwithprivatesectorso thatcreateconcrete
outcomeswill be seen in the next steps.
+5%
+5%
+8%
+8%
