BANGKOK, June 2015 – The Office of Industrial Economics (OIE) has planned a reform of Thailand’s fashion-based industries as a way to resist impacts of global economic recession, revealed OIE Director-General Udom Wongviwatchai.
According to Mr.Udom, “Changing Competitors to Partners” strategy is the heart of the reform involving the textile and garment industry, the footwear and leather industry as well as the gem and jewelry industry. The main aims are to strengthen Thailand’s competitiveness, to maximize benefits from ASEAN FTA and to cope with labour shortage in the future.
Under the reform proposal, those industries mentioned will be clustered into six groups divided by their purposes and marketing factors which are designers and creativity, branding, marketing, production process, research and development and services. The strategy will be proposed to the National Industrial Development Committee chaired by the Prime Minister for consideration within two months’ time.
Mr.Udom believed that if all goes according to plans, the strategy would bring about a 3 – 4% growth in revenue within the next five years. He was optimistic that the world’s economy in the second half of 2015 would be getting better, giving consumers more purchasing power.
The exports of Thai fashion-based industries earned 500 billion baht a year while domestic sales amounted to 320 billion baht. The OIE predicted that the industries would make a negative growth of 2% this year. The Textile & Garment Industry is likely to grow 1%-2.5% while the footwear and leather industry is stable around 0%-1%. Gem and jewelry businesses would improve but still pose a negative growth of 6-7%, compared to a minus growth of 20% in the first quarter of this year.
