BANGKOK, May 31 – Thailand’s Department of Export Promotion (DEP) Director-General Nuntawan Sakuntanaga on Monday voiced confidence the agency will be able to achieve the country’s targeted export growth of at least 15 per cent this year.
She said the country’s exports could be affected by some negative factors such as higher oil prices, public debt in Europe, the fragile recovery of the United States economy, and repercussions from recent earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan.
These factors, however, would not undermine the department’s efforts to boost export growth through the marketing network establishment by the private and public sectors under the Export Clinic Program and many other projects.
She said exporters are keen to penetrate the ASEAN market because they believed the region’s ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will become a reality in 2015.
The value of trade in the ASEAN market has risen continuously, currently ranked at the top of the list of Thai trade partners in terms of trade value. The establishment and full functio ing of the Asean Economic Community AEC, she believes, will carry Thailand’s trade value to higher levels in the market.
Ms Nuntawan said the rising oil prices and currency fluctuations are nonetheless considered as key risk factors to export growth.
Rising fuel prices have had worldwide repercussions, but the currency exchange rate is not as volatile at present.
Under the circumstances, Thai exporters are in a position to make a strategic plan to position their products overseas and compete with their rivals in neighboring countries, she added. (MCOT online news)
