"Thailand Week Roadshow" to be organized in neighbouring countries

BANGKOK, May 21 (TNA) - The Ministry of Commerce will soon organize "Thailand Week Roadshow" in several neighbouring countries to promote Thai exports. Somdet Susomboon, Director of the ministry's Bureau of International Trade Strategy, told journalists on Tuesday that the neighbouring countries where the "Thailand Week Roadshow" will be held include Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines and Chennai in India. Somdet acknowledged that his ministry will also spend 300 million baht of an export promotion fund for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on promoting Thai products in new markets overseas and on forming Thai trade and business development centers and committees in the ASEAN Community (AC), scheduled to be established by 2015, and other Asian areas. Somdet spoke of the plans after Monday's meeting in Bangkok of visiting Thai commercial attachés from 62 countries worldwide and the local private sector on the Thai export outlook in the second half of this year found that the value of Thai exports in the first quarter of this year grew by 4.26 per cent worth 56.97 billion US dollars, with most of the Thai shipments destined to other ASEAN member countries and emerging markets, namely Russia, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina, where their economic fundamentals remain strong. The meeting also revised Thai export outlook by sectors, raising the estimated export growth of some Thai products, including construction materials, from 10 per cent to 15 per cent, furniture, from 0 per cent to 3 per cent, and plastic pellets, from 0 per cent to 5 per cent, amid declining export prospect of other Thai products, namely frozen and chilled prawn, gifts and home decorations, stationery, auto parts, as well as rubber and leather products. According to the senior official, the meeting acknowledged that many risk factors will remain for Thai exports in the second half of this year, including uncertainty of the world economy, the baht appreciation, declining prices of farm products worldwide, increasing costs of raw materials and labor and growing relocations of production from Thailand to other economies. (TNA)