BANGKOK, 20 October 2014 Minister of Commerce Gen Chatchai Sarikalya has voiced confidence that this year’s export growth will end up with a positive figure and has assigned commerce officials overseas to step up promotional campaigns.
Gen Chatchai convened a meeting with Thai commerce attaches from 43 countries worldwide to discuss the direction of Thai exports and related strategies for the rest of this year and the year 2015. The minister said he wished to see exports of next year expand at a higher rate than the national GDP, hoping the growth would be around 4-5 percent.
By the end of this year, the commerce officials were instructed to hold more promotional activities for Thai export goods in their respective countries. Gen Chatchai pointed out that important markets at the moment were China, India and the Middle East, adding that border trade with neighboring countries should also be accelerated, especially after the ASEAN Community officially opened.
Although the country’s export earnings for the first eight months of this year indicated an expansion of negative 1.36 percent year-on-year, the Commerce Minister assured that the figure for the entire year would be positive. He revealed he would make a journey to various countries in a bid to boost confidence among foreigners towards Thai products.
