Thai franchise businesses expand overseas

BANGKOK, September 24 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Commerce, is joining forces with relevant public and private agencies, to promote Thai franchise businesses overseas, aimed at widening Thai exports. Deputy Commerce Minister Suvit Maesincee told journalists of the update on Thursday, after chairing a discussion between representatives of his ministry’s Department of Business Development and those from other concerned government agencies and the Franchise and License Association on ways to promote and expand potential Thai franchise businesses to the world market, targeted at no less than 100 businesses annually. Currently, Suvit said, there are approximately 1,500 franchise businesses in Thailand, operated by 1,230 firms, with their combined registered capital of 59.5 billion baht and total revenue of 645.8 billion baht yearly. Suvit stressed that he has assigned the Department of Business Development to speed up further developing Thai franchise businesses under the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS) in order to help boost the national economy. According to the deputy commerce minister, three-year development measures to expand Thai franchise businesses to the world market (from 2016 to 2018) are scheduled to start next year, under which a minimum of 300 businesses are set to be able to be listed on the world market, while at least 1,800 Thai franchise firms are also set to expand overseas, expected to then earn the Thai Kingdom a combined revenue of about 6.3 billion baht a year. (TNA)