Garment industry to get help
Bangkok Post, ThailandÂ
Firms struggle to deal with Chinese goods
PHUSADEE ARUNMAS
The Commerce Ministry has pledged to encourage closer partnerships between Thai textile and garment manufacturers and the world’s leading brands. It also wants to bolster the competitiveness of local retail and wholesale firms, particularly in the Bo Bae area, to compete with cheap Chinese goods.
Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan said the ministry planned to organise match-making between Thai manufacturers and French and Italian counterparts and seek ways on how to make Thai textile manufacturers supply textiles, fabric or even garments to the world’s leading brands, particularly in the European Union.
Despite Thailand’s strong baht, production costs in Thailand are relatively lower than in Europe, and more importantly the manufacturers have expertise in needlework and dressmaking. Mr Mingkwan said the government would support the development of more design expertise in the industry.
The ministry also pledged to increase exports to Japan to capitalise on the free trade agreement with Japan. Tokyo eliminated the 5% import tariff on Thai shrimp, textiles and processed tapioca starch after the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (JTEPA) took effect on Nov 1 last year.
About 90% of textiles imported by Japan now come from China, with Thai goods comprising only 1% of the market.
Dej Pathanasethpong, president of the Thai Garment Manufacturers Association, said Thailand’s textile and garment exports currently accounted for only 2.04% of the world’s market, now worth more than US$400 billion.
Thailand still had growth opportunities in the world market, but the industry desperately needed to improve the quality of fabric, design, patterns and dyeing, he said.
The Thai Garment Manufacturers Association said textile and garment export values this year were expected to grow more slowly than the 8% rate projected earlier, at about 5% from $6.97 billion in 2014, because of the global economic slowdown and the strong baht.
Thailand’s textile and garment industry was worth a total of 500 billion baht last year, almost evenly split between domestic and export markets. Mr Mingkwan promised to help lift the revenue from the industry by 12% at the end of this year.
