Exports of Thai SMEs keep growing

BANGKOK, August 29 (TNA) - The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP) reports that exports of Thailand's SMEs have kept growing generally over the past five years, with the average growth rate of their exports during the first half of this year slated at 7.7 per cent year-on-year. OSMEP Director Suwanchai Lohawatanakul told journalists of the information on Wednesday, acknowledging that exports of Thai SMEs during the first half of this year totaled about 5.36 billion US dollars or about 170.81 billion baht, a 7.7 per cent year-on-year increase in terms of the US dollar and a 0.4 per cent year-on-year increase in terms of the Thai baht. Suwanchai noted that exports of Thai SMEs during the first half of 2018 accounted for about 24.6 per cent of Thailand's total export value during the same period. Suwanchai stressed that exports of Thai SMEs have continued expanding generally over the past five years, except in 2013 and 2017 due to impacts from foreign exchange rates. The OSMEP chief pointed out that exports of over 56,000 Thai SMEs have not been directly affected by the ongoing trade war between the United States and major trading partners, thanks to the time lag, a period of time between their purchase orders and production and impacts from the trade war. The OSMEP director said, however, Thai SMEs are currently affected by changing technologies, including the expanding e-commerce system, that they need to keep pace with timely, in parallel with further developing their products to meet international market demands amid the greater competition currently on both the domestic and foreign markets. According to the OSMEP director, his office will organize the "SME ONE FEST 2018" at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok during September 6-9, in which member SMEs across Thailand are welcome to participate to showcase and sell their products at more than 1,100 booths, as part of its project on helping develop marketing channels for Thai SMEs in 2018. The OSMEP chief anticipated that the four day-event should create a total sale value of at least 100 million baht and attract about 50,000 international visitors. Besides, a plan on promoting and supporting the business matching of at least 2,000 Thai SMEs and their foreign trading counterparts is also part of the project, expected to create the additional trade value of at least 2 billion baht for the Thai SMEs. (TNA)