Thailand remains regional textile and garment hub

BANGKOK, May 11 (TNA) - The Thai Garment Manufacturers Association has acknowledged that Thailand will remain a regional center for textile and garment industries in the future. Yotthana Kijkusol, President of the Thai Garment Manufacturers Association, said on Friday that Thailand may not position itself as a major production base for textile and garment products in the region, due to rising daily minimum wages, but the country will become a regional center for the management of textile and garment industries. Yotthana assessed that Thailand will also remain as a regional center for garment trade and logistics, as the country has decorative materials which add product values and has comparative advantage in relevant technologies to support product designs. Yotthana acknowledged that the rising daily minimum wages in Thailand to 300 baht nationwide, starting from last month, have prompted some manufacturers especially original equipment plants, to move their factories to neighbouring Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, but the production of high value products has remained in Thailand. The Thai Garment Manufacturers Association chief, however, warned business operators to carefully study investment promotion in the socialist Myanmar economy as it remains unclear. According to the chief of the Thai Garment Manufacturers Association, the value of Thai garment exports totaled 3.28 billion US dollars last year, a 2.6 per cent year-on-year increase, but dropped by 6.94 per cent, or some 750 million US dollars, in the first quarter of this year, noting that the trend of Thailand's textile and garment exports for this year will be clear in the second quarter when the exports of the Thai products usually peak.(TNA)